LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OP 
CALIFORNIA 
AMTA   CRUZ 


THE  HISTORY 


OF  THE 


UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


BY    RICHARD    HILDRETH 


IN     SIX    VOLUMES 

VOL.  IV. 


NEW    YORK 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS,    PUBLISHERS 

FRANKLIN     SQUARE 


Entered,  according  to$  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  fifty-one,  by 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Southern  District 
of  New  York. 

Copyright,  1879,  by  ARTHUR  HILDRETH. 


E 


THE    HISTORY 

OF  THE 

UNITED  STATES  OF -AMERICA 

Ssecontr  Series 

FROM  THE  ADOPTION  OF  THE  FEDERAL 

CONSTITUTION  TO  THE  END   OF  THE  SIXTEENTH 

CONGRESS,  1788—1821 


VOL.  L:    ADMINISTRATION   OF  WASHINGTON 
1789—1797 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


THE  History  of  the  United  States  naturally  di- 
vides itself  into  two  principal  parts.  The  first, 
colonial  and  revolutionary ;  the  second,  embracing 
the  period  subsequent  to  the  adoption  of  the  Fed- 
eral Constitution. 

Having  already  sketched  in  three  volumes  the 
story  of  the  colonial  and  revolutionary  times,  I 
have  been  encouraged  to  enter,  somewhat  more 
at  large  than  I  had  originally  intended,  upon  the 
history  of  the  second  period — that  part  of  it,  at 
least,  which  the  lapse  of  time  has  so  far  thrown 
into  perspective  as  to  enable  it  to  be  comprehend- 
ed by  the  historic  eye,  not  as  a  fragmentary  series 
of  events,  but,  to  a  certain  extent,  as  a  finished 
whole. 

Such  is  the  case  with  the  first  generation  sub- 
sequent to  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitu- 
tion, including  the  origin,  policy,  conflicts,  muta- 
tions, and  final  dissolution  of  the  two  parties  known 
as  Federalists  and  Republicans,  or  Democrats;  a 
period  of  struggles  within,  and  of  dangers  fron? 
without,  during  which  the  tenacity  of  the  Amer- 
ican Union  and  the  strength  of  the  federal  govern- 
ment were  subjected  to  repeated  and  trying  tests 


vj  ADVERTISEMENT. 

In  dealing  with  our  colonial  and  revolutionary 
annals,  a  great  difficulty  had  to  be  encountered  in 
the  mythic  and  heroic  character  above,  beyond, 
often  wholly  apart  from  the  truth  of  history,  with 
which,  in  the  popular  idea,  the  fathers  and  found- 
ers  of  our  American  Republic  have  been  invested. 
American  literature  having  been  mainly  of  the 
rhetorical  cast,  and  the  Revolution,  and  the  old 
times  of  the  forefathers,  forming  standing  subjects 
for  periodical  eulogies,  in  which  every  new  orator 
strives  to  outvie  his  predecessors,  the  true  history 
of  those  times,  in  spite  of  copious  cotemporary 
records,  such  as  the  infancy  of  no  other  nation 
can  show,  illustrated  by  the  labors  of  many  dili- 
gent and  conscientious  inquirers,  has  yet  been  al- 
most obliterated  by  declamations  which  confound 
all  discriminating  and  just  appreciation  in  one 
confused  glare  of  patriotic  eulogium. 

To  pass  from  these  mythical  and  heroic  times 
to  those  which  form  the  subject  of  the  present  vol- 
umes is  like  suddenly  dropping  from  the  golden  to 
the  brazen  and  iron  ages  of  the  poets.  Of  this 
period,  as  of  the  other,  the  current  notions  are 
principally  derived  from  rhetorical  effusions,  but 
effusions  in  which  the  damnatory  element  comes 
to  bear  much  the  larger  proportion  —  the  little 
knowledge  generally  possessed  of  it  being  mainly 
imbibed  from  political  writers,  themselves  often  ill 
informed,  and  whose  object  it  generally  is  to  serve 
some  temporary  party  purpose  by  reviving  old  prej- 
udices and  misapprehensions  fast  becoming  obso- 
lete. It  is,  indeed,  most  curious  to  observe,  as  to 


ADVERTISEMENT 

certain  personages  conspicuous  as  well  in  revohi 
tionary  as  in  subsequent  times,  how,  in  the  pas- 
sage  from  the  one  period  to  the  other,  they  are  sud- 
denly stripped,  in  the  popular  mind,  of  that  super- 
human magnanimity  and  disinterestedness  so  com- 
monly ascribed  to  all  the  men  of  the  Revolution, 
becoming  thenceforth  mere  ordinary  mortals,  ob- 
jects of  sharp,  bitter,  and  often  unmerited  obloquy. 

It  has  been  rnv  earnest  endeavor,  now,  as  for- 
merly, guarding,  so  lar  as  might  be,  against  these 
current  illusions,  to  present,  through  a  pure  medi- 
um of  impartial  truth  and  justice,  the  events  and 
characters  of  the  times  of  which  I  write,  undis- 
torted  by  prejudice,  uncolored  by  sentiment,  nei- 
ther tricked  out  in  the  gaudy  tinsel  of  a  meretri- 
cious rhetoric,  nor  stretched  nor  shortened  to  suit 
the  purposes  of  any  partial  political  theory. 

Yet  the  nature  of  the  subject  and  the  extended 
method  of  treatment — the  chief  interest  of  the 
narrative  being  now  mainly  concentrated  upon  a 
few  leading  and  conspicuous  characters,  whose 
personal  qualities  and  particular  views  come  to 
exercise  a  not  inconsiderable  influence  over  the 
progress  of  affairs,  and  whose  opinions  and  actions 
are  dwelt  upon  at  length — must  naturally  give  to 
some  portions  of  the  present  work  somewhat  more 
of  an  emotional  character  than  was  consistent  with 
the  multiplicity  and  rapid  succession  of  events  in 
the  former  volumes,  and  the  reduced  scale  upon 
which  almost  every  thing  had  in  consequence  to 
be  exhibited.  Very  likely  the  charge  of  partisan- 
ship may  now  be  urged  by  some  of  those  same 


ADVERTISEMENT. 

critics  who  thought  those  volumes  too  apathetic 
and  coldly  impartial.  For,  though  hoth  works 
have  been  written  in  the  same  spirit,  and,  with 
allowances  for  the  variations  above  pointed  out, 
on  the  same  plan,  a  few  figures,  large  as  life,  and 
kept  for  a  length  of  time  before  the  eye,  though 
the  general  style  of  art  be  in  no  respect  different, 
will  naturally  produce  a  different  effect  from  nu- 
merous groups,  mostly  in  miniature,  succeeding 
each  other  with  panoramic  rapidity. 

The  present  volume  embraces  the  administra- 
tion of  Washington,  a  period  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance, as  having  fixed  upon  the  federal  gov- 
ernment that  character  and  those  methods  of  ad- 
ministration which  it  has  ever  since  retained  ;  im- 
portant, also,  for  the  origin  and  array  of  the  party 
divisions  which  form  a  chief  subject  of  the  entire 
work. 

The  second  volume  will  include  the  administra- 
tion of  John  Adams  ;  the  downfall  of  the  Feder- 
alists ;  the  transfer  of  power  to  the  Republican 
party  by  the  election  of  Jefferson ;  and  his  admin- 
istration, starting  with  the  proposal  to  reduce  ex- 
ercises of  federal  authority  to  a  minimum,  a  pro- 
posal followed  up  by  the  purchase  and  annexation 
of  Louisiana,  unconstitutional  and  unauthorized, 
according  to  the  Republican  doctrine,  yet  carried 
through  by  Jefferson  and  his  party  on  the  very 
principle  of  the  Federalists,  of  assuming  all  power 
necessary  for  the  public  welfare ;  to  which  soon  aft- 
er succeeded,  on  the  sa-me  principle,  other  stretch- 
es of  authoritv  over  commerce  and  the  internal 


ADVERTISEMENT.  lx 

industry  of  the  country,  far  beyond  any  thing  upon 
which  the  Federalists  had  ever  ventured. 

The  third  volume,  commencing  with  those  very 
extraordinary  measures  of  the  embargo  and  non- 
intercourse,  will  exhibit,  in  relating  the  adminis- 
tration of  Madison,  the  theories  of  the  two  politic- 
al parties  brought  to  the  test  of  a  severe  experi- 
ence, by  which  both  the  one  and  the  other,  but 
especially  the  dominant  party,  were  driven  to  oc- 
cupy, in  a  great  measure,  the  very  position  of  their 
political  opponents — a  change  of  ground  which,  in 
combination  with  other  causes,  produced  a  com- 
plete extinction,  during  Monroe's  first  term,  of  the 
old  party  divisions  so  far  as  they  were  grounded 
upon  any  thing  more  than  mere  personal  and  lo- 
cal antipathies  ;  which,  indeed,  had  exercised  from 
the  beginning  an  influence  over  our  national  pol- 
itics by  no  means  inconsiderable. 

These  three  volumes,  while  they  serve  as  a  con 
tinuation  of  the  three  already  published,  will,  like 
those,  constitute  also  a  separate  work,  complete  in 
itself. 

Oct.  1,  1850. 

Advantage  has  been  taken  of  a  new  edition  to 
introduce  a  number  of  corrections.  Some  obscu- 
rities of  expression  have  been  cleared  up,  and  some 
matters  of  fact  set  right ;  as  to  which  I  have  re- 
ceived material  assistance  from  several  gentlemen 
otherwise  unknown  to  me,  but  whose  kindness  in 
supplying  my  deficiencies  by  their  better  knowl- 
edge has  laid  me  under  lasting  obligations 

April  30,  1853. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  FIRST  VOLUME. 


[A  complete  Analytical  Index  will  be  found  at  the  end  of  the  third  volume.] 


CHAPTER  I. 

1  FEDERALISTS  AND  ANTI-FEDERALISTS.  FIRST  SESSION 
OF  THE  FIRST  CONGRESS.  INAUGURATION  OF  THE 
NEW  GOVERNMENT.  REVENUE  SYSTEM.  EXECUTIVE 
DEPARTMENTS.  POWER  OF  REMOVALS  FROM  OFFICE. 
FEDERAL  JUDICIARY.  AMENDMENTS  OF  THE  CONSTI- 
TUTION. NORTHWEST  TERRITORY.  SALARIES.  SEAT 
OF  GOVERNMENT. 

Division  of  Opinion  as  to  the  Federal  Constitution 25 

Its  Acceptance  by  ten  States 26 

Celebration  of  that  Event  at  Philadelphia 26 

Wilson's  Oration  ;  Pennsylvania  anti-Federalists 28 

Anti-Federal  Violence  at  Providence  and  Albany 29 

Federal  Celebration  at  New  York — Attack  on  a  Printing- 
office 30 

Warmth  of  Party  feeling  ;  Party  Names.  .  .  . ' 31 

New  York  Circular  Letter — Proposal  for  a  new  Convention  32 

Response  from  Pennsylvania — from  Virginia 32 

North  Carolina  and  Rhode  Island 34 

Doubtful  Majority  of  Federalists  in  the  other  States 33 

Views  of  the  Federalists  as  to  a  new  Convention 50 

State  of  Parties  in  Massachusetts  and  Virginia 36 

In  New  York  and  Pennsylvania 37 

Election  of  President ;   Senators 40 

Representatives 42 

Federal  Hall ;  Delay  in  obtaining  a  Quorum 46 

Organization  of  the  two  Houses 48 

Opening  of  the  Votes  for  President  and  Vice-president 48 


CONTENTS. 


Rules  and  Orders  of  the  two  Houses  .............  ......  49 

Arrival  and  Inauguration  of  Vice-president  Adams  .......  52 

Notification  of  Washington  ;  his  Journey  to  New  York.  .  .  53 

Inauguration  of  the  President  .....  .  ..................  56 

Reception  of  Mrs.  Washington  ;  Republican  Suspicions.  .  .  58 

Question  of  presidential  Titles  ........................  59 

Answers  to  the  President's  Speech  ..................  62 

Official  Intercourse  between  the  President  and  the  Senate  .  63 

Presidential  Etiquette  ..............................  63 

Classification  of  Senators  ;  Oaths  .....................  64 

Revenue  Systerr.  ;  Madison's  Resolutions  —  Debate  thereon  65 
Proposed  Duties  on  Imports  ;    Protection  of  domestic  In- 

dustry ......  ...................................  66 

Tonnage  Duties  ;  Question  of  Discrimination  ...........  76 

Renewed  Debate  in  the  Houst      British  commercial  Policy  82 

The  Molasses  Duty;  the  Fisheries  ;  New  England  Rum  .  .  87 

Renewed  Debate  on  discriminating  Tonnage  Duties  ......  89 

Proposed  Duty  on  Slaves  imported  —  Debate  ............  91 

Limitation  of  the  Duties  to  seven  Years  ................  96 

Amendments  by  the  Senate  ;  the  Tariff  as  adopted  .......  97 

Tonnage  Duties  ;  Collection  Act  ......................  99 

Regulation  of  Shipping  ;  Light-houses  and  Beacons  ......  101 

Executive  Departments  .............................  102 

Debate  on  this  Subject  in  Committee  of  the  Whole  .......  104 

Power  of  Removals  from  Office  ......  ................  105 

Heads  of  Departments  ..............................  108 

Federal  Judiciary  ...............  ...................  109 

Amendments  of  the  Constitution  ......................  112 

Debates  upon  this  Subject  in  the  House  ................  120 

Right  of  Instruction  ................................  122 

Amendments  adopted  ..............................  123 

Territory  Northwest  of  the  Ohio  ......................  124 

Salaries  —  Compensation  to  Members  of  Congress  ........  124 

Supplies  ,  ...................  ..........  !  ..........  126 

Seat  of  Government  ,  ...........  '...'.'  ............  ...  127 

Thanksgiving  .........  .  ...........................  1  29 


CONTENTS.  xjii 

CHAPTER  II. 

APPOINTMENTS  TO  OFFICE.  FOREIGN  AND  INDIAN  RELA- 
TIONS. RHODE  ISLAND  AND  NORTH  CAROLINA.  SEC- 
OND SESSION  OF  THE  FIRST  CONGRESS.  THE  FUNDING 
SYSTEM.  POWER  OF  CONGRESS  OVER  THE  SUBJECT 
OF  SLAVERY.  TERRITORY  SOUTH  OF  THE  OHIO.  SEAT 
OF  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT. 

Page 

Appointments  to  Office 130 

Incompatibility  of  State  and  Federal  Offices 13£ 

Relations  with  foreign  Nations 132 

French  consular  Convention 133 

Presidential  Etiquette  ;  Method  of  Business 134 

Relations  with  Spain  ;  foreign  Intrigues  in  the  West 134 

Relations  with  Great  Britain 13G 

Relations  with  the  Western  Indians 137 

Relations  with  the  Southern  Tribes 140 

Negotiation  with  the  Creeks 146 

North  Carolina  and  Rhode  Island 147 

Washington's  Eastern  Tour 149 

Accession  of  North  Carolina  ;  her  Cession  of  Territory  .  .'.  150 

University  of  North  Carolina  ;  Seat  of  Government  ......  150 

Second  Session  of  the  first  Congress  ;  President's  Speech  .  .  151 

Federal  Year;  unfinished  Business 151 

Hamilton's  Report  on  the  public  Debt 152 

Policy  of  Payment  in  full 157 

Value  of  the  Certificates  ;  Speculations  therein 158 

Different  Opinions  as  to  Payment  in  full 158 

Parallel  Case  of  the  Continental  Paper 159 

Debate  on  the  Funding  System 161 

Madison's  Proposition — Debate  upon  it 164 

Proposed  Assumption  of  the  State  Debts 171 

Slavery  in  the  States 174 

Prevalence  of  Anti-slavery  Sentiment 17C 

Anti-slavery  Petitions , 177 

Report  and  Debate  thereon. 177 

Report  as  agreed  to  and  entersd  on  the  Journal 203 

Territory  south  of  the  Ohio .....  .  205 


CONTENTS, 


Renewed  Debate  on  the  Funding  Sysiem  ...........  206 

Accession  of  Rhode  Island  ...........................  209 

Question  of  Seat  of  the  Federal  Government  ............  21C 

Connection  of  this  Question  with  that  of  the  Assumption.  .  211 

Selection  of  a  permanent  Seat  of  Government  ...........  212 

Assumption  of  the  State  Debts  .......................  213 

Funding  System  as  adopted  ..........................  214 

Revision  of  the  Tariff  ..............................  216 

Provisions  for  a  final  Settlement  of  Revolutionary  Accounts  218 

Sinking  Fund  ....................................  .  219 

Naturalization  Act  ...........................  ......  220 

Patent  and  Copy-right  Acts  .........................  220 

Regulation  of  Senmen  ..............................  221 

Indian  Trade  and  Intercourse  .......................  222 

Crimes  against  the  United  States  .......  .  .............  222 

Foreign  Intercourse  ........  ........................  223 

Army  ;  Tonnage  Duty  ;  Post-office  ;  Appropriations  .....  224 

CHAPTER  III. 

NEW  CONSTITUTIONS  OF  GEORGIA,  SOUTH  CAROLINA,  AND 
PENNSYLVANIA.  AMERICAN  THEATRICALS.  INDIAN 
AFFAIRS.  THIRD  SESSION  OF  THE  FIRST  CONGRESS. 
THE  EXCISE.  NATIONAL  BANK.  VERMONT  AND  KEN- 
TUCKY ADMITTED  INTO  THE  UNION.  CONSTITUTION 
OF  VERMONT.  BENEFICIAL  OPERATION  OF  THE  NEW 
SYSTEM  OF  FINANCE. 

New  Constitution  of  Georgia  .........................  225 

Land  Claims  and  Grants  ............................  227 

Seat  of  Government  ;  College  ........................  228 

New  Constitution  of  South  Carolina  ..................  228 

New  Constitution  of  Pennsylvania  ....................  231 

Wyoming  Controversy  ..............................  237 

Political  Insignificance  of  Pennsylvania  ................  240 

Influence  and  Efforts  of  the  Quakers  ...  ...............  241 

American  Theatricals  ................  .  .............  241 

Treaty  with  the  Creeks  at  New  York  ..................  244 

Relations  with  the  Western  Indians  .  .  .  247 


CONTENTS.  xv 

Pago 

Harmer's  Expeditions  against  them •  248 

Modification  of  Parties 249 

Action  of  the  Virginia  Assembly 249 

The  Opposition  in  North  Carolina 250 

Third  Session  of  the  First  Congress ;   Monroe 251 

President's  Speech 252 

Hamilton's  Report  on  an  Excise  Duty 253 

Debate  on  the  Excise  Bill ;  its  Provisions 254 

Resolutions  of  State  Legislatures  against  it  .  . . 256 

Hamilton's  Report  on  a  National  Bank 256 

Retrospect  of  the  State  of  the  Currency 256 

Expediency  of  a  National  Bank 261 

Debate  thereon  ;  Question  of  Constitutionality 262 

Provisions  of  the  Bank  Charter 264 

Prospective  Admission  of  Kentucky  into  the  Union 267 

Vermont  admitted  into  the  Union 268 

Constitution  of  Vermont ;   Schools,  University 269 

Increase  of  the  Army  ;  Appropriations 272 

State  of  Things  when  the  present  Congress  assembled 273 

Results  accomplished  by  it 274 

Congressional  Proceedings — Reports 275 

Beneficial  Operation  of  the  Funding  System 275 

First  American  Voyage  round  the  World  ;  Columbia  River 

explored 277 

CHAPTER  IV. 

INDIAN  WAR  IN  THE  WEST.  FIRST  SESSION  OF  THE 
SECOND  CONGRESS.  STATE  OF  PARTIES.  JEFFER- 
SON, ADAMS,  AND  HAMILTON.  FIRST  CENSUS.  NEW 
APPORTIONMENT  OF  REPRESENTATIVES.  THIRD  TAR- 
IFF. MILITIA.  POST-OFFICE.  MINT.  JUDICIAL  PRO- 
CEDURE. REVOLUTIONARY  CLAIMS.  ELECTORS  OF 
PRESIDENT.  CONSTITUTIONS  OF  KENTUCKY,  DELA- 
WARE, AND  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

Washington's  Southern  Tour 278 

The  new  Federal  City 278 

Organization  of  the  National  Bank 279 


Xvi  CONTENTS. 

Page 

Arrival  of  a  British  Minister 279 

Relief  to  St.  Domingo 280 

Diplomatic  Appointments 28C 

.Indian  War  in  the  West ;  Scott's  Expedition 28] 

Attempts  at  Negotiation 281 

Uneasiness  of  the  Southern  Tribes 282 

Wilkinson's  Expedition  ;   St.  Glair's  Campaign 283 

St.  Glair's  Defeat 285 

Second  Congress  ;  new  Senate  ;  Cabot  and  Burr 287 

Members  of  the  House 289 

Speaker — President's  Speech 290 

Modification  of  Parties — Division  in  the  Cabinet 291 

Jefferson : 291 

John  Adams 293 

Hamilton : 296 

Jefferson  as  a  Member  of  the  Cabinet 297 

The  Republican  Party  ;  Freneau's  Gazette 300 

Geographical  Arrangement  of  Parties 300 

First  Census 301 

Reapportionment  of  Representatives 301 

Increase  of  the  Army  .  . ,, 304 

Committee  of  Investigation — Calls  for  Papers 306 

Hamilton's  Reports  on  Revenue  and  Manufactures 306 

ThirdTariff. 307 

Amendment  of  the  Excise  Act 309 

Fishing  Bounties 309 

Militia 310 

Authority  of  the  President  to  call  out  the  Militia 311 

Post-office  System 312 

Mint ;  Coinage 314 

Device  for  the  Coin — Debate  thereon 315 

French  Politics ;  Letter  from  Louis  XVI 318 

Judicial  Process ;  poor  Debtors  ;  Judges 319 

Judicial  Dignity  vindicated 321 

Consuls — their  Authority 322 

Public  Debt 322 

Petition  of  Continental  Officers 323 

Flection  of  President  and  Yice-President  regulated 324 


CONTENTS. 

Pag" 

Presidential  Vacancy,  how  filled 325 

Appropriations  for  1792  ;  Constitution  of  Kentucky 3.26 

New  Constitution  of  Delaware ' 329 

Amended  Constitution  of  New  Hampshire ...    329 

CHAPTER  V. 

ALLEGED  MONARCHICAL  CONSPIRACY.  BASIS  OF  PARTY 
DIVISIONS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  DIFFERENCES 
BETWEEN  JEFFERSON  AND  HAMILTON.  RESISTANCE 
TO  THE  EXCISE.  INDIAN  AFFAIRS.  SECOND  SESSION 
OF  THE  SECOND  CONGRESS.  CHARGES  AGAINST  HAM- 
ILTON. WASHINGTON'S  SECOND  INAUGURATION. 

Washington's  Disposition  to  retire 331 

Opposed  by  Jefferson  ;  his  Letter  to  Washington 331 

Alleged  Monarchical  Conspiracy 333 

Comments  on  Jefferson's  Letter 336 

Washington's  Opinion  as  to  the  alleged  Conspiracy 341 

Futility  of  this  Idea 342 

Basis  of  Party  Divisions  in  the  United  States 342 

Hamilton's  View  of  the  State  of  Affairs 353 

Randolph's  View  of  the  State  of  Affairs 354 

Open  Breach  between  Hamilton  and  Jefferson 357 

Washington's  Attempts  at  a  Reconciliation 359 

Hamilton's  Letter  in  Relation  to  this  Subject 361 

Jefferson's  Letter — Observations  upon  it 363 

Relations  of  Jefferson  and  Hamilton  toward  the  Press  ....  368 

Jefferson's  Offer  to  Resigp 370 

Washington's  Reply 371 

His  reiterated  Attempt  to  calm  down  Jefferson 372 

Resistance  to  the  Excise 373 

Affairs  of  New  York— Jay  and  Clinton 376 

Indian  Relations 377 

Presidential  Election 381 

Second  Session  of  the  Second  Congress — President's  Speech  382 

Committee  on  St.  Glair's  Defeat 383 

Financial  Questions 384 

Proposed  Payment  of  the  Debt  to  the  Bank 385 

Slavery — Right  of  Petition 385 

IV.— B 


xviii  CONTENTS. 

p.f. 

Hamilton's  Plan  for  the  gradual  Payment  of  thu  Public  Debt  388 

Suspicions  and  Policy  of  the  Opposition 389 

Their  Triumph  in  the  Matter  of  the  Bank  Debt 390 

Attack  on  the  War  Department , 391 

Balance  due  the  Creditor  States  ;  Alleged  Corruption  denied  392 

Charges  against  Hamilton 394 

His  Reply  and  Vindication 395 

Attempt  to  censure  him  ;  its  Failure 400 

No  Action  taken  on  his  Plan  for  discharging  the  Public  Debt  405 

Claim  of  the  Continental  Officers  rejected 405 

Fugitives  from  Justice  ;  Fugitives  from  Labor 406 

Appropriations ;  Suability  of  the  States 407 

Indian  Affairs 408 

Conclusion  of  the  Second  Congress 409 

Washington's  Second  Installation 409 

Vice-President  Adams — Republican  Alarms 409 

CHAPTER  VI. 

RELATIONS    WITH    FRANCE.       GENET.       JEFFERSON    RE- 
TIRES FROM  THE  CABINET.      THIRD  CONGRESS.     MAD- 
\    ISON'S    RESOLUTIONS.        PROSPECT    OF    A    WAR    WITH 
GREAT    BRITAIN.       MISSION    OF    JAY. 

Foreign  Influence  on  American  Affairs 411 

French  Revolution — Celebrations 411 

Arrival  of  Genet — War  between  France  and  England. ...   412 

Cabinet  Consultations 413 

Proclamation  of  Neutrality 415 

Genet ;  his  Reception  and  Proceedings  at  Charleston 415 

Further  Cabinet  Consultations 417 

Genet's  Reception  at  Philadelphia 418 

His  first  diplomatic  Communications 419 

Steps  for  maintaining  the  Neutrality  of  the  United  States  .   420 

Remonstrances  of  Genet 422 

Struggle  between  the  Government  and  the  French  Faction  423 

Jefferson  and  Freneau  ;  Democratic  Societies 424 

Pennsylvania  Politicians 425 

Persistance  of  Genet 4^6 

Case  of  the  Little  Sarah . .  .427 


CONTENTS.  xix 

Page 

Pacificus  and  Helvidius  ;  Jefferson  tenders  his  Resignation.   429 

Washington's  Sensibility  to  the  Attacks  upon  Him 429 

fncreasing  Embarrassments  of  the  Government 430 

Cabinet  Consultations  ;  Request  for  Genet's  Recall 431 

Sensibility  evinced  by  Washington 432 

Further  Steps  for  the  Preservation  of  Neutrality 432 

Increasing  Differences  in  the  Cabinet 433 

Jefferson's  Resignation  postponed ;  his  Relations  with  Genet  434 

Reaction  in  favor  of  the  Government 435 

Circular  to  the  French  Consuls 437 

Genet's  Schemes  for  invading  Florida  and  Louisiana 438 

Extent  of  his  Operations  ;  new  Request  for  Money 439 

Proposal  to  order  Genet  out  of  the  Country 439 

Belligerent  Rights  as  claimed  and  exercised 440 

Conduct  of  the  Colonial  Prize  Courts 441 

Impressment ;  Outrages  on  American  Seamen 442 

Failure  of  the  Negotiation  with  the  Northwestern  Indians .   443 

Wayne's  Winter  Quarters 444 

Cherokee  War  ;  Relations  with  the  Creeks 445 

Excitement  in  Relation  to  the  Judiciary 446 

Yellow  Fever  at  Philadelphia 447 

Members  of  the  Third  Congress — Senators — Gallatin 447 

Resolution  to  open  the  Doors  of  the  Senate 449 

Members  of  the  House — Speaker 450 

President's  Speech 451 

Message  respecting  Foreign  Relations 452 

Jefferson's  Diplomatic  Correspondence 452 

His  Report  on  Commerce — He  retires  to  Monticello 454 

Reconstruction  of  the  Cabinet 457 

Relations  with  Algiers  ;  Debate  thereon 457 

Committee  on  a  Naval  Force 458 

First  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means 458 

Madison's  Resolutions — Debate  thereon 459 

Economical  and  Political  Character  of  the  Resolutions . .    .    476 

Recall  of  Genet — Affairs  of  France  ;  Fauchet 477 

St.  Domingo  Refugees 478 

First  Steps  toward  a  Navy 479 

Fortification  of  Harbors  ;  Arsenals  and  Armories  , 460 


xx  CONTENTS. 

Pag« 

British  Order  in  Council  of  Nov.  6th,  1793 ....  481 

Renewed  Debate  on  Madison  s  Resolutions 482 

Lord  Dorchester's  Speech  to  the  Indians 482 

Embargo — Report  of  the  Committee  on  Defense 483 

Smith's  Resolution  on  Spoliations 483 

Dayton's  Confiscating  Resolution 483 

British  Order  of  the  8th  of  January,  1794 486 

Clark's  Resolution  for  suspending  Trade  with  Great  Britain  486 

Special  Mission  to  England — Hamilton 486 

Jay — his  Nomination  as  Extraordinary  Envoy 488 

Further  Proceedings  on  the  Part  of  the  two  Houses 489 

Partial  Reflux  of  public  Feeling  ;  Embarkation  of  Jay  ....  489 

Other  Diplomatic  Appointments 490 

Appropriations ;  new  Taxes 491 

French  Debt 492 

Settlement  of  Revolutionary  Accounts 493 

Abolition  Convention  ;  Restraints  on  the  Slave  Trade. ...  494 

Act  for  punishing  Violations  of  Neutrality 494 

Expiration  of  the  Embargo 497 

CHAPTER  VII. 
INSURRECTION  IN  WESTERN  PENNSYLVANIA.       WAYNfi's 

VICTORY    OVER    THE    INDIANS.        SECOND    SESSION  OF 

THE    THIRD    CONGRESS. 

Violence  to  the  Marshal  and  Inspector  near  Pittsburg  ....  498 

Meeting  at  Mingo  Creek 500 

Robbery  of  the  Mail— Circular  to  the  Militia  Officers 500 

Expulsion  of  Citizens  from  Pittsburg 501 

Meeting  at  Braddock's  Field 501 

Expulsion  of  Excise  Officers ;  Alarm  of  the  Administration  502 

Mifflin  declines  to  call  out  the  Militia 503 

President's  Proclamation — Requisition  for  Troops 504 

Views  of  Randolph 605 

Commissioners  sent  to  the  disturbed  Districts 505 

First  Convention  at  Parkinson's  Ferry 506 

Conference  with  the  Commissioners — their  Offers 507 

Proceedings  of  the  Committee  of  Sixty 508 

New  Demands  on  the  Part  of  the  Commissioners  .  ,  .509 


CONTENTS.  xxj 

Page 

Failure  of  Compliance 509 

Prompt  Response  to  the  President's  Requisition 510 

Necessity  of  decisive  Measures 511 

Second  Convention  at  Parkinson's  Ferry 512 

Attempt  to  prevent  the  Advance  of  the  Troops 512 

Third   Convention  at  Parkinson's  Ferry;   Arrival  of  the 

Troops  .. 513 

Military  Arrests ;  Withdrawal  of  the  Troops 514 

Election  in  the  disturbed  Districts 515 

Character  of  the  Insurrection 515 

The  Government  strengthened  by  it 516 

•>  Fauchet's  singular  Dispatches 516 

Wayne's  Campaign  against  the  Indians 520 

Second  Session  of  the  Third  Congress ;  Private  Claims  .  .  .  523 

President's  Speech 523 

Answer  of  the  Senate 524 

Debate  in  the  House  on  Democratic  Societies 526 

Madison's  attempted  Amendment  of  the  Address 528 

Expenses  of  the  Insurrection 528 

Dissatisfaction  of  Jefferson  at  the  Tameness  of  the  Opposition  529 

Remarks  thereon 530 

Decline  of  the  Democratic  Societies 531 

New  Naturalization  Law 532 

Debate  on  the  Renunciation  of  Titles  of  Nobility 532 

Provision  for  the  Redemption  of  the  Public  Debt 536 

Hamilton  and  Knox  retire  from  Office ;  Appropriations  ...  538 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

JAY'S  TREATY.  FIRST  SESSION  OF  THE  FOURTH  CON- 
GRESS. TREATIES  WITH  THE  NORTHWESTERN  IN- 
DIANS, WITH  ALGIERS,  AND  SPAIN.  DISCUSSION  AS  TO 
THE  TREATY-MAKING  POWER.  TENNESSEE.  AFFAIRS 
OF  THE  STATES. 

Jay's  Negotiation 539 

Provisions  of  the  Treaty 541 

Special  Session  of  the  Senate — new  Members 544 

The  Senate,  advise  the  Ratification  of  the  Treaty 545 

Hesitation  of  the  President— his  Reasons ...                         .  545 


CONTENTS. 


Publication  of  the  Treaty  ..........................      546 

Opposition  to  the  Treaty  —  Riot  at  Boston  .............      547 

Town  Meeting  —  Address  to  the  President  ..............    54'r 

Affairs  of  New  York  and  Proceedings  there  .............   548 

Proceedings  at  Philadelphia  .........................   551 

Proceedings  at  Charleston  —  John  Rutledge  .............   551 

At  Wilmington  and  elsewhere  .......................    552 

Washington's  Views  ...............................   553 

Disclosures  respecting  Randolph  ......................    556 

Cabinet  Council  ;  Resolution  to  ratify  .................    556 

Randolph's  Explanations  and  Resignation  .......  .......    557 

Continued  public  Excitement  ........................    561 

Rally  in  Favor  of  the  Treaty  ;  Newspaper  Discussions  .  .  .    562 
Motives  on  both  Sides  —  Interest  and  Feeling  ............    562 

Arrogant  Behavior  of  British  Officials  .................    563 

Enthusiasm  for  France  .............................    564 

Wayne's  Treaty  with  the  Northwestern  Indians  .........    564 

Indian  Affairs  on  the  Southern  Frontier  ................    566 

Treaty  with  Algiers  ;  Dutch  Debt  ....................   566 

Attempt  to  convert  the  Foreign  into  Domestic  Debt  ......    568 

Treaty  with  Spain  ................................    569 

Reconstruction  of  the  Cabinet  ;  Judge  Chase  ...........    570 

State  Action  on  the  British  Treaty  ...................   574 

Fourth  Congress  —  its  Members  ;  Standing  Committees  ,  .  .    576 
President's  Speech  ;  Answers  thereto  ..................    578 

Land  Speculation  —  alleged  Attempt  at  Bribery  .........    580 

Challenge  of  a  Member  —  Question  of  Privilege  ..........   583 

Rejection  of  Rutledge  —  Ellsworth  Chief  Justice  .........    584 

British  Treaty  laid  before  the  House  ................  .  .    584 

Call  for  Papers  ;  Debate  ............................   585 

Cabinet  Consultation  ;  President's  Refusal  .............   587 

Resolutions  of  the  House  ..........................  .  .    589 

Treaties  with  Algiers,  Spain,  and  the  Indians  ...........   590 

Debate  on  Jay's  Treaty  ............................      591 

Movements  out  of  Doors  ...........................      597 

Speech  of  Gallatin  .............  .  ............  ......      599 

Tracy's  Pveply  ..................................   604 

Speech  of  Ames  .................................   605 


CONTENTS.  xxiil 

Page, 

The  Treaty  sustained 615 

Vexation  of  Jefferson — Letter  to  Mazzei 616 

Correspondence  between  Jefferson  and  Washington 619 

Contrariety  of  their  Opinions 621 

Diplomatic  Appointments 621 

Indian  Boundary — Indian  Intercourse  Act 622 

Survey  and  Sales  of  public  Lands 625 

Federal  City—Loan 626 

Impressment ;  Poor  Debtors 627 

Military  Establishment ;  Navy 628 

Payment  of  Members  of  Congress  ;  Internal  Improvements  629 

Appropriations  ;  attempted  Loan 630 

State  of  Tennessee;  its  Admission  into  the  Union 631 

Progress  and  Prosperity  of  New  England 634 

New  York  and  Pennsylvania ;  Western  Settlements 637 

Delaware,  New  Jersey,  Maryland ;  Southern  States 640 

Georgia  ;  Yazoo  Lands 641 

The  Creeks — general  Peace  on  the  Indian  Frontier 643 

CHAPTER  IX. 

RELATIONS  WITH  FRANCE.  MISSION  AND  RECALL  OF 
MONROE.  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  SECOND  SES- 
SION OF  THE  FOURTH  CONGRESS. 

Views  of  the  French  and  their  Partisans 645 

Morris — his  Recall 646 

Appointment  of  Monroe  as  Minister  to  France 647 

State  of  France  at  his  Arrival 648 

Sentiments  entertained  toward  America 649 

Monroe's  Feelings  and  Policy 650 

Monroe's  theatrical  Reception — Merlin's  Speech 651 

Disapproval  by  the  American  Government  .  .  . . , 653 

Interchange  of  Flags 654 

Claims  lodged  with  Monroe 656 

His  unauthorized  Concessions  ;  is  rebuked  therefor 657 

His  Encouragement  of  an  American  Loan  to  France 658 

Acts  and  Promises  of  the  French  Government;  Jay's  Treaty  659 

Monroe's  Attempt  to  draw  back  from  the  Loan 661 

French  Decree  giving  full  Effect  to  the  Treaty  with  America  662 


xxiv  CONTENTS. 

N«i 

Monroe's  Apology  and  Vindication 662 

His  Correspondence  with  Jay 664 

Failure  of  his  Attempt  to  procure  a  Copy  of  the  Treaty  for 

the  French  Government 665 

Strictures  of  Adet  on  the  Treaty 666 

British  Provision  Order  ;  Publication  of  the  Treaty 667 

Embarrassment  of  Monroe — his  Reasons  for  not  resigning  .    668 

Still  adheres  to  the  Idea  of  subsidizing  France 669 

Randolph's  Dispatches  ;  the  French  Directory 670 

Pickering's  Justification  of  Jay's  Treaty 672 

Course  pursued  by  Monroe 675 

His  Correspondence  with  De  la  Croix 676 

His  Recall „ 679 

New  Complaints  by  Adet 680 

Communication  of  the  Decree  of  14th  Messador 681 

Cockade  Proclamation 681 

Adet's  final  Appeal . 682 

Washington's  Farewell  Address , 685 

Presidential  Candidates 687 

Presidential  Electors  . 689 

Second  Session  of  the  Fourth  Congress -691 

President's  Speech . .   692 

Answer  of  the  House 695 

Libels  on  Washington  ;  Forged  Letters 696 

Responses  to  Washington's  Farewell  Address 697 

Action  of  Congress  ;  Revolutionary  Balances 697 

State  of  the  Finances — new  Taxes 698 

Irmy ;  Salaries ;  Appropriations  for  1797 700 

Result  of  the  Presidential  Election 701 

Proposed  Amendment  of  the  Constitution 602 

Documents  respecting  French  Relations , .   702 

French  Depredations ... 70r 

Barney  ;  News  of  Pinckney's  Arrival  in  France 701 

Delicate  Position  of  the  Government  with  respect  to  France  704 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 


CHAPTER    I. 

FEDERALISTS  AND  ANTI-FEDERALISTS.  FIRST  SESSION  OF 
THE  FIRST  CONGRESS.  INAUGURATION  OF  THE  NEW 
GOVERNMENT.  REVENUE  SYSTEM.  EXECUTIVE  DEPART- 
MENTS. POWER  OF  REMOVALS  FROM  OFFICE.  FEDERAL 
JUDICIARY.  AMENDMENTS  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION. 
NORTHWEST  TERRITORY.  SALARIES.  SEAT  OF  GOV- 
ERNMENT. 

JL  HE  whole  people  of  the  United  States,  on  the  ques-  CHAPTEB 

tion  of  ratifying  or  rejecting  the  Federal  Constitution, 

had  been  suddenly  arranged,  for  the  first  time,  into  two  1787. 
definite  and  well-marked  political  parties ;  and  into  this 
new  array  of  national  politics  were  speedily  absorbed  all 
the  various  local  parties  by  which,  since  the  conclusion 
of  the  Revolutionary  struggle,  the  states  had  all  been 
more  or  less  agitated,  some  of  them  even  to  the  pitch  of 
insurrection  and  civil  war. 

In  most  of  the  towns  and  cities,  the  seats  of  trade  and 
mechanical  industry,  the  friends  of  the  new  Constitution 
formed  a  very  decided  majority.  Much  was  hoped  from 
the  organization  of  a  vigorous  national  government,  and 
the  exercise  of  the  extensive  powers  vested  in  it  for  the 
regulation  of  commerce.  Boston,  Baltimore,  and  Charles-  1 788. 
ton  celebrated  in  turn,  and  with  no  little  pomp,  the  ac- 
ceptance of  the  new  system  by  the  states  to  which  they 
belonged,  The  ratification  of  the  Federal  Constitution, 


26       HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  by  ten  State  Conventions,  at  the  dates  and  by  the  ma- 
jorities  expressed  in  the  following  table — 

1788.  1787,  Dec.     3,  Delaware unanimously; 

Dec.  13,  Pennsylvania 46  to    23; 

Dec.   19,  New  Jersey unanimously; 

1788,  Jan.      2,  Georgia unanimously ; 

Jan.      9,  Connecticut 128  to    40; 

Feb.     6,  Massachusetts 187tolC8; 

April  28,  Maryland 63  to    12  ; 

May   23,  South  Carolina 149  to    73; 

June  21,  New  Hampshire 57  to    46; 

June  25,  Virginia 89  to    79— 

having  made  it  certain  that  the  new  government  would 
go  into  operation,  the  approaching  anniversary  of  the  na- 
tional independence  was  selected  in  Philadelphia  for  duly 
celebrating  an  event  in  which  that  city  felt  indeed  a  pe- 
culiar interest,  because  it  looked  forward  to  becoming  the 
national  capital. 

My  4.  The  ten  ratifying  states  were  represented  by  as  many 
ships  moored  at  intervals  in  the  Delaware,  along  the  front 
of  the  city,  each  displaying  at  its  mast-head  a  broad 
white  flag,  bearing  the  name  of  the  state  represented 
emblazoned  in  gold.  All  the  vessels  in  the  river  were 
gayly  dressed  in  flags  and  streamers.  The  procession 
which  marched  through  the  streets  was  almost  a  masquer- 
ade. Independence,  the  French  Alliance,  the  definitive 
Treaty  of  Peace,  Washington  the  Friend  of  his  Coun- 
try, the  New  Era,  the  Federal  Constitution,  the  Ten 
Ratifying  States,  were  personated  by  some  of  the  princi- 
pal citizens,  in  appropriate  dresses.  The  new  Constitu- 
tion was  personified  by  a  lofty  ornamental  car  in  the 
form  of  an  eagle,  drawn  by  six  horses.  Chief  Justice 
M'Kean  and  two  of  his  associates  on  the  bench  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania  were  seated  in  this  oar, 
bearing  the  Constitution  framed  and  fixed  upon  a  staff, 
the  staff  itself  crowned  with  the  cap  of  liberty,  and  "  the 
people,"  in  golden  letters,  written  on  it  as  a  legend.  A 


FEDERALISTS    AND    ANTI-FEDERALISTS.  £7 

citizen  and  an  Indian  chief  riding  together  in  an  open  CHAPTEF 

carriage,  and  smoking  the  calumet,  personified  peace  on 

the  frontiers.  The  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  ]\Ianu-  1788. 
factures  was  preceded  by  a  carriage  bearing  a  stage,  on 
which  were  represented  the  processes  of  carding  and  spin- 
ning cotton  by  hand  machinery,  then  lately  invented  and 
just  introduced  into  the  United  States.  Similar  socie- 
ties had  lately  been  established  in  Boston  and  New  York, 
a  great  interest  having  been  recently  awakened  in  the 
promotion  of  domestic  manufactures.  A  carriage  drawn 
by  ten  white  horses,  and  escorted  by  the  carpenters,  bore 
the  model  of  a  grand  federal  edifice,  supported  by  thir- 
teen columns,  ten  complete  and  three  unfinished.  The 
pilots,  ship-carpenters,  boat-builders,  and  other  trades  con- 
nected with  navigation  surrounded  a  miniature  vessel, 
the  federal  ship  Union,  mounting  twenty  guns,  and 
manned  with  a  crew  of  twenty-five  men.  A  sheet  of 
canvas  tacked  along  the  water-line,  extending  over  a  light 
frame,  and  painted  to  represent  the  sea,  concealed  the 
carriage  en  which  the  vessel  was  drawn  and  helped  to 
carry  out  the  illusion.  The  procession,  including  all  the 
trades,  the  military,  and  the  public  functionaries,  count- 
ed upward  of  five  thousand  persons,  recorded  in  the  peri- 
odicals of  the  day  as  an  immense  and  unprecedented 
number.  Having  traversed  the  city,  it  proceeded  to 
Union  Square,  where  a  crowd  of  seventeen  thousand  per- 
sons was  collected.  After  an  oration  by  Wilson,  whose 
share  in  framing  the  Constitution,  and  in  defending  it 
before  the  Convention  of  Pennsylvania,  had  been  so  dis- 
tinguished, the  assembled  multitude  partook  of  a  boun- 
tiful collation.  Every  thing  was  conducted  with  the 
greatest  order  and  decorum.  "  It  was  very  remarkable," 
says  an  eye-witness,  "  that  every  countenance  wore  an 
air  of  dignity  as  well  as  of  pleasure.  Every  tradesman's 


HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

boy  in  the  procession  seemed  to  consider  himself  as  a 
principal  in  the  business.  Rank  for  a  while  forgot  its 
1788.  claims,  and  agriculture,  commerce,  and  manufactures, 
together  with  the  learned  and  mechanical  professions, 
seemed  to  acknowledge,  by  united  harmony  and  respect, 
that  they  were  all  necessary  to  each  other,  and  all  use- 
ful in  cultivated  society,  These  circumstances  distin- 
guished this  procession  from  the  processions  in  Europe, 
which  are  commonly  instituted  in  honor  of  single  per- 
sons. The  military  alone  partake  of  the  splendor  of  such 
exhibitions.  Farmers  and  tradesmen  are  either  deemed 
unworthy  of  such  connections,  or  are  introduced  like 
horses  or  buildings,  only  to  add  to  the  show  or  length  of 
the  procession.  Such  is  the  difference  between  the  ef- 
fects of  republican  and  monarchical  government  upon  the 
minds  of  men." 

Wilson  dwelt  with  emphasis,  in  his  oration,  upon  the 
peculiar  origin  and  popular  sanction  of  the  new  federal 
government.  "  Delegates  were  appointed  to  deliberate 
and  propose.  They  met  and  performed  their  delegated 
trust.  The  result  of  their  deliberations  was  laid  before 
the  people.  It  was  discussed  and  scrutinized  in  the  full- 
est, fairest,  and  severest  manner,  by  speaking,  by  writ- 
ing, by  printing,  by  individuals,  and  by  public  bodies, 
by  its  friends  and  its  enemies.  What  was  the  issue  ? 
Most  favorable,  most  glorious  to  the  system  !  In  state 
after  state,  at  time  after  time,  it  was  ratified,  in  some 
states  unanimously,  on  the  whole  by  a  large  and  most 
respectable  majority."  On  occasions  like  this,  in  the 
celebration  of  all  party  triumphs — for  the  policy  of  adopt- 
ing the  Federal  Constitution  was  as  yet  a  party  question 
— more  or  less  of  exaggeration  is  usually  indulged  in, 
Of  this  privilege  Wilson  had  not  hesitated  to  avail  him- 
self;  for  it  was  exceedingly  doubtful  whether,  upon  a 


FEDERALISTS    AND    AN  Tl  -  F1.DE  R  ALISTS.  29 

fair  canvass,  a  majority  of  the  people,  even  in  the  ratify-  CHAPTER 
ing  states,  were  in  favor  of  the  new  Constitution.  The  ' 
enthusiasm  of  Philadelphia  was  by  no  means  a  test  even  1788, 
of  the  feeling  of  Pennsylvania.  That  state  had,  indeed, 
been  the  second  to  ratify;  no  amendments  had  been  pro- 
posed by  the  Convention ;  the  majority  seemed  to  be 
decisive.  But,  to  judge  from  a  protest  put  forth  by  the 
minority,  the  opinion  of  the  people  was  far  from  having 
been  cleanly  or  decisively  expressed.  It  was  maintained 
in  this  protest  that  the  Ratifying  Convention  had  been 
illegally  constituted.  The  resolution  introduced  into  the 
Assembly  for  holding  that  Convention  had  allowed  a 
period  of  only  ten  days  within  which  to  elect  the  mem- 
bers of  it ;  and  the  minority  in  the  Assembly  had  been 
able  to  find  no  other  means  of  preventing  this  precipita- 
tion, except  by  absenting  themselves,  and  so  depriving 
the  House  of  a  quorum.  But  the  majority  were  not  to 
be  so  thwarted  ;  and  some  of  these  absentees,  so  the  pro- 
test alleged,  had  been  seized  by  a  mob,  forcibly  dragged 
to  the  House,  and  there  held  in  their  seats,  while  the 
quorum  so  formed  gave  a  formal  sanction  to  the  resolu 
tion.  Such  was  the  color  given  to  an  exercise  of  the  As- 
sembly's right  to  compel  the  attendance  of  its  members. 
They  added,  that  out  of  seventy  thousand  voters  in  the 
state,  only  thirteen  thousand  had  taken  part  in  the  choice 
of  the  late  Ratifying  Convention. 

The  day  so  unanimously  celebrated  in  Philadelphia 
became  the  occasion  elsewhere  of  very  violent  exhibi- 
tions of  party  feeling.  The  people  of  Providence,  in 
Rhode  Island,  like  those  of  most  of  the  commercial  towns, 
were  in  favor  of  ratifying,  and  had  resolved  to  add  to 
the  usual  commemoration  of  the  4th  of  July  rejoicings 
that  the  Federal  Constitution  was  to  go  into  effect,  But 
this  intention  was  defeated  by  a  mob  of  a  thousand  men 


3Q  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    S1ATES. 

CHAPTER  from  the  neighboring  country  towns  (some  of  them  arm« 
___ed,  headed  by  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court),  who  com- 
1788.  pelled  the  people  of  Providence  to  strike  out  from  their 
programme  all  reference  to  the  Federal  Constitution.  A 
still  more  violent  collision  took  place  in  Albany.  The 
friends  of  the  Constitution,  the  day  before,  on  receiving 
news  of  the  ratification  by  Virginia,  had  celebrated  that 
event  by  a  procession  and  a  salute  of  ten  guns.  Those 
of  the  opposite  party  showed  their  chagrin  by  meeting  the 
next  morning  and  burning  the  Constitution.  Both  par- 
ties united  during  the  forenoon  in  the  customary  celebra- 
tion of  the  anniversary  of  independence,  but  separated  to 
dine  at  different  places.  After  dinner  the  friends  of  the 
Constitution  formed  a  new  procession,  escorted  by  some 
military  companies.  As  they  passed  the  head-quarters 
of  the  other  party,  an  altercation  arose,  ending  in  a  con- 
flict in  which  clubs  and  stones,  and  presently  swords  and 
bayonets,  were  freely  used,  resulting  in  severe  injuries  to 
several  persons. 

Some  three  weeks  after  the  Philadelphia  celebration 
a  similar  pageant  was  got  up  in  New  York,  that  city, 
like  Philadelphia,  being  decidedly  in  favor  of  the  new- 
Constitution,  and  hoping  also,  like  Philadelphia,  to  be- 
come the  seat  of  the  national  government,  as  it  then  was 
of  the  Continental  Congress.  One  of  the  newspapers, 
Greenleaf 's  Political  Register,  the  same  afterward  known 
as  the  Argus,  and  presently  chief  organ  in  New  York 
of  opposition  to  the  federal  administration,  gave  a  some- 
what disparaging  account  of  this  procession,  and  indulged 
in  some  jocular  remarks  on  an  accident  which  happened 
to  a  part  of  it.  A  night  or  two  after,  news  having  ar- 
rived that  the  Constitution  had  been  ratified  by  the  New 
J»ly  27.  York  State  Convention  at  Poughkeepsie,  a  rnob  attacked 
the  obnoxious  printing-office,  broke  the  doors  and  win- 
dows, and  destroyed  the  type. 


FEDERALISTS    AND    ANTI-FEDERALISTS.  3] 

The  high  pitch  of  political  passion  to  which  the  public  CIIAPTEJ? 
mind  had  been  raised  during  the  war  of  the  Revolution  J 

had  by  no  means,  as  yet,  entirely  subsided.  During  \  788. 
that  impassioned  and  protracted  struggle,  imprisonment, 
banishment,  confiscation,  even  death  itself,  had  been  oc- 
casionally visited  upon  political  opponents.  When  men 
to  whom  such  extremities  had  grown  familiar  came  to 
differ  among  themselves  on  a  question  so  important  as 
the  future  national  government  of  the  Union,  at  a  period, 
too,  when  even  the  state  governments  were  surrounded 
with  embarrassments,  and  seemed  almost  in  danger  of 
dissolution,  a  wholesome  moderation  and  a  charitable  es- 
timate of  each  other's  motives  and  intentions,  however 
much  to  be  desired,  was  hardly  to  be  hoped  for. 

The  friends  of  the  new  Constitution,  taking  for  them- 
selves the  title  of  FEDERALISTS,  bestowed  that  of  ANTI- 
FEDERALISTS  on  their  opponents.  Those  opponents  in- 
sisted, however,  that  these  names,  if  interchanged, 
would  have  been  much  more  appropriately  applied.  The 
new  Constitution,  aiming,  as  it  did,  at  a  self-sustaining 
national  government,  was,  they  insisted,  something  more 
than  federal,  and  its  supporters,  therefore,  more  than 
Federalists — a  name  which  might,  with  more  justice, 
have  been  given  to  those  who  preferred  a  really  federal 
compact.  The  name  of  anti-Federalists  would  seem  to 
imply  opposition  to  the  union  of  the  states  ;  but  by  most 
of  that  party  any  such  imputation  was  very  warmly 
disclaimed.  So  far  from  being  opposed  to  the  Union, 
they  declared  themselves  willing  to  make  great  sacrifices 
to  maintain  it.  Notwithstanding  the  slight  ebullitions 
of  feeling  already  noticed — so  slight  that  history  has  al- 
most forgotten  to  record  them,  but  important  as  showing 
the  actual  state  of  the  public  mind — no  disposition  was 
any  where  evinced  to  resist  the  will  of  the  majority  as 


32  HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  declared  in  legal  form.      In  all  the  ratifying  states  the 
'       anti-Federalists  expressed  their  readiness  to  aid,  in  good 

1788  faith,  in  putting  the  new  system  into  operation.  But 
they  insisted  with  great  vehemence  on  the  absolute 
necessity  of  immediate  amendments,  which  had,  in- 
deed, been  recommended  by  four  out  of  the  ten  rati- 
fying conventions,  or  five  out  of  eleven,  counting  New 
York. 

While  giving  a  reluctant  assent  to  the  Constitution 
as  it  stood,  the  New  York  Convention  had  addressed  a 
circular  letter  to  the  other  ratifying  states,  in  which  they 
declared  that  several  articles  appeared  so  exceptionable 
to  a  majority  of  their  body,  "  that  nothing  but  the  full- 
est confidence  of  obtaining  a  revision  of  them  by  a  Gen- 
eral Convention,  and  an  invincible  reluctance  to  separate 
from  their  sister  states,  could  have  prevailed  on  a  suffi- 
cient number  to  ratify  without  stipulating  for  previous 
amendments ;"  and  they  recommended  to  the  states  to 
make  immediate  application  to  the  new  Federal  Con- 
gress presently  to  meet,  that  a  new  constitutional  con- 
vention might  be  forthwith  authorized  under  the  provi- 
sion to  that  effect  contained  in  the  Constitution. 

Sept.  5  This  New  York  circular  was  soon  responded  to  by  a 
meeting  held  at  Harrisburg,  in  Pennsylvania,  consisting 
of  delegates  elected  by  the  anti-Federalists  in  the  differ- 
ent  parts  of  that  state.  The  proposal  for  a  new  Fed- 
eral Convention  was  warmly  seconded,  and  a  list  of  the 
amendments  deemed  essential  was  agreed  to.  The  only 
person  as  yet  conspicuous  in  the  history  of  Pennsylvania 
whose  name  appears  among  the  members  of  this  Conven 
tion,  was  the  venerable  George  Bryan,  one  of  the  judges 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  late  vice-president  of  the 
state,  always  a  warm  partisan  of  the  old  constitutional 
or  ultra-libeial  party.  Albert  Gallatin,  an  emigrant 


FEDERALISTS    AND    ANTI-FEDERALISTS.  33 

trcm  Switzerland,  destined  presently  to  political  celebrity,  CHAPTER 

was  also  a  member.  

The  Virginia  Assembly,  at  their  annual  meeting,  gave  1788 
the  sanction  of  their  authority  to  the  numerous  amend-  N°v-  20 
ments  to  the  Federal  Constitution  already  suggested  by 
the  Virginia  Convention.  They  also  passed  an  act,  dis- 
qualifying all  persons  on  whom  any  lucrative  office  might 
be  conferred,  under  the,  new  Federal  Constitution,  from 
holding  any  office  under  the  state,  except  in  the  militia 
or  as  county  magistrates.  In  response  to  the  New  York 
circular,  they  prepared  an  address  to  the  Federal  Con- 
gress about  to  meet,  calling  for  a  new  Federal  Conven- 
tion to  revise  the  Constitution.  "  At  the  same  time," 
says  this  address,  "  that,  from  motives  of  affection  to  our 
sister  states,  the  Virginia  Convention  yielded  their  as- 
sent to  the  ratification,  they  gave  the  most  unequivocal 
proof  that  they  dreaded  its  operation  under  the  present 
form.  In  acceding  to  the  government  under  this  im- 
pression, painful  must  have  been  the  prospect,  had  they 
not  derived  consolation  from  a  full  expectation  of  its  im- 
perfections being  speedily  amended."  For  a  detail  of 
their  objections,  involving,  as  they  alleged,  "  all  the  great 
and  unalienable  rights  of  freemen,"  they  refer  to  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  late  Convention  and  their  own  resolu- 
tions, at  the  same  time  declaring  their  opinion  that,  "  as 
these  objections  are  not  founded  in  speculative  theory, 
but  are  deduced  from  principles  which  have  been  estab- 
lished by  the  melancholy  example  of  other  nations  in 
different  ages,  so  they  will  never  be  removed  till  the 
cause  itself  shall  cease  to  exist."  "  The  sooner,  there- 
fore, the  public  apprehensions  are  quieted,  and  the  gov- 
ernment is  possessed  of  the  confidence  of  the  people,  the 
more  salutary  will  be  its  operation,  and  the  longer  its 
duration.  The  cause  of  amendments  we  consider  as  a 
IV.— C 


34  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  common  cause  ;   and  since,  from  political  motives,  con- 
'        cessions  have  been  made  which  we  conceive  may  en- 
1788,  danger  the  republic,  we  trust  that  a  commendable  zeal 
will  be  shown  for  obtaining  those  provisions  which  ex- 
perience has  taught  us  are  necessary  to  secure  from  dan- 
ger the  unalienable  rights  of  human  nature."      A  letter 
to  the  ratifying  states,  similar  in  its  import  to  this  ad- 
dress to  Congress,  was  also  agreed  to,  and  a  special  let- 
ter to  Governor  Clinton,  in  answer  to  the  New  York 
circular. 

The  project  of  a  new  convention,  thus  patronized  by 
New  York  and  Virginia,  of  course  received  a  strong 
support  from  the  two  states  of  North  Carolina  and  Rhode 
Island,  and  their  sentiments  had,  perhaps,  still  greater 
weight  from  the  circumstance  that  both  had  declined  to 
come  in  under  the  present  Constitution.  North  Carolina 
had  ratified,  but  only  on  condition  of  the  adoption  of 
certain  specified  amendments.  In  Rhode  Island  the  Con- 
stitution had  been  submitted,  not  to  a  general  conven- 
tion, as  its  friends  desired,  but  separately  to  the  several 
towns,  by  a  majority  of  which  it  had  been  rejected. 
Both  in  North  Carolina  and  Rhode  Island  the  great  dif- 
ficulty was  the  state  paper  money.  Nor  was  this  the 
only  mischief  thereby  occasioned.  The  Rhode  Island 
tender  law,  compelling  creditors  to  accept  payment  in 
the  state  paper  on  pain  of  forfeiting  all  their  claims,  had 
been  resented  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  by  laws 
prohibiting  the  courts  of  those  states  to  entertain  any 
suits  brought  to  recover  debts  by  citizens  of  Rhode  Isl- 
and. That  law  was  also  the  cause  of  violent  party  di' 
visions  within  the  state.  The  Legislature  had  created  a 
special  tribunal  to  proceed  summarily,  without  juries,  foi 
the  infliction  of  penalties  on  those  who  refused  to  tak« 
the  paper  money.  This  tribunal  the  Supreme  Court  of 


FEDERALISTS    AND    ANTI-FEDERALISTS.  35 

the  state  had  pronounced  unconstitutional.  The  Quak-  CHAPTER 
ers.  a  numerous  and  influential  sect,  had  petitioned  in  a 
body  against  the  Tender  Act.  The  Cincinnati  of  Rhode  1788. 
Island  indignantly  expelled  one  of  their  members,  who 
had  availed  himself  of  it  to  discharge  a  specie  debt.  But 
the  system  was  still  maintained,  and  was  presently  car- 
ried out  to  its  ultimate  object  by  the  discharge  of  the 
last  installment  of  the  state  debt,  the  paper  being  depre- 
ciated to  ten  or  eleven  for  one,  and  the  public  creditors 
obliged  to  take  it  or  to  forfeit  their  claims.  An  explana- 
tion of  these  proceedings  may  be  found  in  the  extreme 
poverty  to  which  Rhode  Island,  always  greatly  depend- 
ent on  trade,  had  been  reduced  in  the  course  of  the 
'Revolutionary  war,  a  depression  out  of  which  she  had  not 
yet  recovered.  A  large  proportion  of  her  citizens  were 
insolvent,  and  this  paper  money  system,  in  its  operation 
upon  private  contracts,  was  not  materially  different  from 
the  insolvent  laws  of  the  present  day.  As  respected  the 
public  debt,  it  fell  short  of  repudiation,  operating  like 
those  compositions  with  their  creditors  into  which  it  has 
not  been  uncommon  for  states  to  enter,  and  instances  of 
which  have  been  recently  seen. 

In  Massachusetts,  as  well  as  in  Virginia,  New  York, 
and  Pennsylvania,  the  federal  majority  was  very  uncer- 
tain. Indeed,  it  may  well  be  questioned  whether  in 
either  of  those  four  great  states  there  was  actually  any 
federal  majority  at  all.  New  Hampshire  and  South 
Carolina  were  equally  doubtful ;  nor  could  Georgia  be 
depended  upon.  It  was  only  in  Connecticut,  Delaware, 
New  Jersey,  and  Maryland,  all  of  which,  in  the  Conven- 
tion, had  supported,  at  first,  the  State  Rights  view,  and 
had  opposed  the  formation  of  a  national  government,  that 
the  Constitution,  now  that  it  was  adopted,  seemed  cer- 
tain of  steady  support. 


36  HISTOixY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER       With  such  a  prospect  before  them,  the  proposal  for  a 

new  convention  excited  in  the  minds  of  the  Federalists 

1788.  the  liveliest  alarm.  The  late  Federal  Convention,  though 
nominally  called  to  amend  the  Articles  of  Confederation, 
had  ended  in  producing  a  system  entirely  new.  Who 
could  tell  that  a  second  convention  might  not  totally 
undo  all  the  labors  of  the  first  ?  The  more  moderate 
partisans  of  the  new  system  were  willing  to  admit  that, 
for  the  sake  of  peace  and  conciliation,  it  might,  perhaps, 
be  wise  for  Congress  to  recommend,  and  for  the  states 
to  adopt,  some  of  the  suggested  amendments,  such  of 
them,  at  least,  as,  without  changing  any  part  of  the  fed- 
eral machinery,  went  no  further  than  a  declaration  of 
rights.  The  more  strenuous  insisted  that  no  change 
whatever  ought  to  be  made  till  the  Constitution  had  first 
been  tried.  All  agreed  in  regarding  the  proposal  of  a 
new  convention  as  insidious,  and  dangerous  in  the  high 
est  degree. 

Though  in  Massachusetts,  as  well  as  in  Virginia,  the 
ratification  of  the  new  Constitution  had  been  carried  with 
very  great  difficulty,  and  by  a  very  slender  majority,  yet 
the  position  of  parties  in  these  two  leading  states  was 
entirely  different ;  so  much  so  as  soon  to  place  them  in 
decided  and  permanent  political  opposition.  In  Massa- 
chusetts, the  weight  of  talent,  wealth,  and  influence  was 
altogether  on  the  federal  side.  The  anti-Federalists 
were  destitute  of  organization  and  of  leaders,  most  of 
those  who  soon  became  so  being  restrained  at  present  by 
having  committed  themselves  in  favor  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. The  Federalists  controlled  the  state  Legislature, 
and  the  whole  weight  of  the  state  government  was  thrown 
decidedly  into  that  scale. 

Very  different  was  the  position  of  parties  in  Virginia 
The  anti-Federalists  had  able  leaders :  at  their  head. 


FEDERALISTS    AND    ANTI-FEDERALISTS.  37 

Patrick  Henry,  whose  influence  over  the  Assembly  was  CHAPTER 
very  predominant.  Many  of  the  great  planters  were  on  ' 
that  side,  and  the  backwoods  population  almost  univers-  17  88. 
ally  so.  What  tended  to  strengthen  the  anti-Federal 
party  in  Virginia  was  the  large  amount  of  old  debts  due 
to  British  merchants,  for  enforcing  the  payment  of  which 
it  was  feared  the  new  Constitution  would  furnish  addi- 
tional facilities.  These  debts,  estimated  by  Jefferson  as 
high  as  ten  millions  of  dollars — as  much  as  was  due 
from  all  the  other  states  put  together — had  originated 
in  advances  made  in  colonial  times  by  British  merchants 
for  the  purchase  of  slaves  and  for  plantation  supplies,  in 
return  for  which  the  planter  had  been  obliged  to  consign 
all  his  produce  to  be  sold  on  commission  by  the  house 
making  the  advance.  "  These  debts,"  says  Jefferson, 
61  had  become  hereditary  from  father  to  son  for  many 
generations,  so  that  the  planters  were  a  species  of  prop- 
erty annexed  to  certain  mercantile  houses  in  London." 
The  idea  of  being  again  subjected  to  this  thraldom,  or, 
at  least,  compelled  to  square  up  the  old  accounts,  had  a 
very  great  influence  in  diffusing  and  upholding  anti-Fed- 
eral .'deas,  not  only  in  Virginia,  but  through  the  whole 
Souil-,  from  which  the  other  ten  millions  were  princi- 
pally due.  Instead  of  having  on  their  side  almost  the 
entire  talent,  wealth,  and  intelligence  of  the  state,  as 
was  the  case  in  Massachusetts,  the  Federalists  of  Vir- 
ginia could  boast  of  only  a  share,  while  the  mass  of  the 
population  was  against  them.  The  anti-Federalists  had 
the  control  of  the  state  Legislature,  as  appears,  indeed, 
by  the  proceedings  already  quoted,  and  Virginia  accord- 
ingly took  her  place  at  the  head  of  the  anti-Federal  party 
of  the  nation. 

Next  to  Virginia,  the  anti-Federalists  were  strongest 
and  most  ably  led  in  New  York  ;  and  thus  early  were 


38  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  combinations  formed  which  have  influenced  the  politics 

of  the  Union  even  to  the  present  day.      The  tendency, 

1788.  indeed,  of  New  York  to  a  close  political  sympathy  with 
Virginia  and  the  Southern  States,  as  against  New  En- 
gland,  had  made  itself  visible  at  an  early  period  of  the 
old  confederation,  having  naturally  grown  out  of  a  certain 
resemblance  in  institutions  and  manners,  which,  in  New 
York  and  the  South,  had  much  more  of  an  aristocratic 
cast  than  in  New  England.  At  the  head  of  the  anti- 
Federalists  of  New  York  was  George  Clinton,  governor 
of  that  state  ever  since  the  state  Constitution  had  been 
formed,  a  man  of  great  energy  and  firmness,  and  pos- 
sessing great  weight  with  the  mass  of  the  people.  The 
secret  of  Clinton's  anti-Federalism  was  simply  this.  The 
unrivaled  advantages  for  trade  which  New  York  pos- 
sessed in  her  admirable  sea-port  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Hudson  not  only  secured  to  her  the  certainty  of  an  an> 
pie  revenue  by  imposts  upon  commerce,  but  the  power 
also,  more  than  once  exercised  during  colonial  times,  of 
levying  tribute  on  her  neighbors.  With  a  feeling  of 
state  pride  and  state  selfishness,  more  excusable  than 
wise  or  commendable,  many  of  the  New  Yorkers  were 
unwilling  to  surrender  this  great  power  over  commerce 
and  their  neighbors.  Hence  the  opposition  which  Clinton 
had  always  made  to  the  grant  of  the  continental  impost ; 
and  when  the  defeat  of  that  grant  had  contributed,  by 
an  operation  as  little  wished  as  expected,  to  give  birth  to 
the  Federal  Constitution,  his  no-  less  determined  opposi- 
tion to  that.  The  city  of  New  York  and  the  southern 
counties,  persuaded  that  the  prosperity  of  the  state  would 
be  far  more  certainly  secured  as  a  member  of  the  Union 
than  by  entering  into  a  struggle  for  commercial  suprem- 
acy, were  strongly  federal.  But  the  governor  was  zeal- 
ously supported  by  the  northern  and  western  counties. 


FEDERALISTS    AlNJJ    ANTI-FEDERALISTS.  39 

and  a  fair  proportion  of  the  ablest  men  in  the  state  coin-  CHAPTER 
cided  with  his  views.  The  New  York  Senate  had  a  ma-  ' 
jority  of  Federalists,  but  the  other  party  predominated  1788. 
in  the  Lower  House.  Clinton  called  an  extra  session  of 
the  Legislature  to  take  such  steps  as  had  become  neces- 
sary toward  carrying  the  Federal  Constitution  into  effect. 
The  state  was  divided  into  districts  for  the  choice  of 
representatives  to  Congress,  but  as  to  the  choice  of  sen- 
ators and  presidential  electors,  the  two  houses  could  not 
agree.  The  Assembly  wished  to  choose  them  by  joint 
ballot,  which  method  would  have  insured  the  election  of 
two  anti-Federal  senators  ;  the  other  house  insisted  upon 
their  concurrent  right,  offering,  however,  to  compromise 
upon  any  method  which  would  secure  to  them  the  nom- 
ination of  one  senator  and  half  of  the  electors.  Finally, 
the  Legislature  separated  without  coming  to  any  agree- 
ment ;  in  consequence  of  which,  New  York  did  not  vote 
at  the  election  of  president,  nor  had  she  during  the  great- 
er part  of  the  first  session  of  Congress  any  representa- 
tives in  the  federal  Senate. 

There  were  in  Pennsylvania,  as  we  have  seen  already, 
some  very  warm  and  active  opponents  of  the  new  Federal 
Constitution.  The  leaders  of  what  was  known  in  that 
state  as  the  Constitutional  party,  the  advocates  of  the 
then  existing  state  Constitution,  were  generally  inclined 
to  the  anti-Federal  side.  But  those  leaders,  at  present, 
were  in  a  minority  ;  as  yet  the  masses  remained  quies- 
cent ;  and  under  the  guidance  of  the  opponents  of  the 
existing  state  Constitution,  the  Republican  party,  as 
they  called  themselves,  a  name  presently  merged  in  that 
of  Federalist,  Pennsylvania  took  her  old  position,  as 
under  the  Confederation,  by  the  side  of  Massachusetts 
as  against  Virginia  and  New  York. 

In  all  the  ratifying  states,  New  York  excepted,  presi- 


40  HISTORY   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  dential  electors  were  duly  appointed.      In  Virginia  the 

choice  was  given  to  the  people,  the  state  being  divided 

1788.  into  districts  for  that  special  purpose.  In  Massachusetts 
the  people  of  each  congressional  district  were  authorized 
to  nominate  three  candidates,  from  whom  the  Legisla- 
ture was  to  select  one,  besides  two  additional  electors  to 
be  chosen  from  the  citizens  at  large.  Generally  the 
choice  was  by  the  state  Legislatures,  in  some  states  by 
concurrent  vote  of  the  two  branches,  in  others  by  joint 
ballot. 

1  789  The  electors  thus  chosen  met  in  their  respective  states 
Feb-  on  the  day  appointed  by  the  Continental  Congress,  and 
discharged  their  functions  according  to  the  method  pre- 
scribed by  the  Constitution.  Meanwhile  elections  of 
senators  and  representatives  were  going  on  in  the  dif- 
ferent states.  Quite  a  number  of  those  chosen  to  con- 
stitute the  new  national  Legislature  already  enjoyed  a 
continental  reputation;  but,  as  always  happens  in  such 
cases,  the  choice  was  rather  directed  by  present  consid- 
erations than  by  past  services.  Neglecting  some  more 
familiar  names,  Massachusetts  selected  as  her  represent- 
atives in  the  Senate  Tristram  Dalton  and  Caleb  Strong, 
the  latter  a  member  of  the  late  Federal  Convention,  and 
active  in  state  affairs  throughout  the  Revolution.  Vir- 
ginia was  represented  by  Richard  Henry  Lee,  the  old 
Revolutionary  leader,  and  William  Grayson,  an  active 
opponent  of  the  Federal  Constitution  in  the  Virginia  Con- 
vention. Madison  was  a  candidate,  but  lost  his  election 
by  eight  votes,  Henry  having  uttered  a  philippic  against 
him  in  the  Assembly.  These  two"  Virginians  were  the 
only  professed  anti-Federalists  elected  to  the  Senate 
Of  senators  already  known  for  their  services  in  the  Rev- 
olution or  as  members  of  the  late  Federal  Convention, 
there  were,  from  the  other  states,  John  Langdon,  o/ 


MEMBERS    OF    THE    FIRST    CONGRESS.  .4  j 

New    Hampshire ;    Oliver    Ellsworth   and  William    S.  CUAPTEU 
Johnson,    of   Connecticut,    the    latter    lately    appointed        " 
President  of  Columbia  College  in  the  city  of  New  York,  1780 
an  office  which  his  father  had  filled  before  him ;   Will- 
iam Patterson,  of  New  Jersey  ;   Robert  Morris,  of  Penn- 
sylvania ;   George  Read,  of  Delaware  ;   Charles  Carroll, 
of  Maryland  ;    Pierce  Butler,  of  South   Carolina  ;    and 
William  Few,  of  Georgia. 

The  new  Constitution  provided  that  the  senators 
should  be  chosen  by  the  state  Legislatures,  but  this  pro- 
vision was  not  free  from  ambiguity.  Did  the  governors 
constitute  a  part  of  the  Legislatures,  and  was  their  as- 
sent necessary  to  the  choice  ?  This  question,  if  raised 
at  all,  which  hardly  appears,  was  settled  at  once  against 
the  governors'  right.  Indeed,  at  that  moment  it  was  of 
little  consequence,  except  in  Massachusetts,  that  being 
the  only  state  in  which  the  governor  was  allowed,  as 
yet,  any  veto  power  on  the  passage  of  legislative  acts. 
Supposing  the  choice  to  be  vested  in  the  state  assem- 
blies independently  of  the  governor,  should  it  be  made 
by  concurrent  vote,  that  is,  by  each  house  acting  sepa- 
rately, and  having  a  negative  on  the  other,  or  by  joint 
ballot  of  both  houses  meeting  together  and  voting  as  one 
body,  the  general  practice  where  the  election  of  state  of- 
ficers was  vested  in  the  assemblies  ?  This  question, 
which  had  prevented,  at  first,  any  choice  in  New  York, 
was  decided  differently  in  different  states,  and  both  meth- 
ods, that  by  joint  ballot  and  that  by  concurrent  vote, 
have  continued  to  prevail  to  the  present  day.  The 
method  by  joint  ballot,  which  has  at  least  the  advant- 
age of  insuring  a  choice,  has,  however,  been  generally 
adopted.  The  New  York  Federalists,  though  they  failed, 
in  spite  of  the  greatest  efforts,  in  defeating  the  re-elec- 
tion of  Governor  Clinton,  succeeded,  at  a  new  state 


42  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  election,  in  obtaining  a  majority  in  both  branches  of  the 

.  Legislature,  when  they  chose  as  senators  General  Schuy- 

1789    ler  and  Rufus  King,  the  latter  a  recent  immigrant  from 

Massachusetts,  which   state   he  had  represented   in  the 

Federal  Convention,  but  married  to  the  daughter  of  a 

wealthy  New  York  merchant. 

In  several  of  the  states,  Massachusetts  especially,  the 
election  of  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives  was 
very  warmly  contested.  Though  Samuel  Adams  was 
claimed  by  the  Federalists  as  of  their  party,  and  had, 
in  fact,  in  the  State  Convention,  voted  for  ratifying,  yet 
he,  as  well  as  Governor  Hancock,  was  an  advocate  for 
amendments,  and  the  Federalists,  who  knew  that  his  tal 
ent  was  greater  for  pulling  down  than  for  building  up, 
did  not  choose  to  trust  him  as  a  representative  to  Con- 
gress from  the  Boston  district.  He  was  voted  for  by 
the  other  party,  but  the  Federalists  elected  over  his 
head  Fisher  Ames,  a  much  younger  man,  who  had  al- 
ready gained  a  reputation  at  the  bar,  but  who  had  chiefly 
raised  himself  into  notice,  as  a  member  of  the  State  Con- 
vention, by  his  earnest  and  eloquent  advocacy  of  the 
Federal  Constitution.  In  the  western  districts,  which 
had  been  the  chief  seats  of  Shays's  Rebellion,  the  choice 
was  very  warmly  contested,  and  no  election  was  made 
till  after  several  trials,  no  person  having  the  requisite 
majority.  Grout,  the  anti-Federal  candidate,  a  partisan 
of  Shays's,  was  finally  chosen  in  the  Worcester  district ; 
but  in  the  extreme  western  counties,  the  choice  ultimate- 
ly fell  on  Theodore  Sedgwick,  a  lawyer,  a  descendant  of 
the  old  Massachusetts  major-general  of  that  name,  and 
a  very  decided  Federalist.  After  two  trials  Gerry  was 
elected  from  the  Middlesex  district  over  Gorham,  his 
late  colleague  in  the  Federal  Convention,  but  not  till  he 
had  published  an  address  to  the  electors  declaring  1  is 


MEMBERS    OF   THE    FIRST    CONGRESS.  43 

opinion   that,    as   the    new    system   had   been    adopted,  CHAPTEI 
"  every  citizen  of  the  ratifying  states  was  in  duty  bound         ' 
to  support  it,  and  that  an  opposition  to  a  due  adminis-  1789. 
tration  of  it  would  not  only  be  unjustifiable,  but  highly 
criminal."      The  mercantile  interest  had  an  able  repre- 
sentative in  Benjamin  Goodhue,  from  the  Essex  district. 
At  the  head  of  the  Connecticut  delegation  was  the  ven- 
erable Roger  Sherman,  a  leading  member  of  the  Conti- 
nental Congress  throughout  the  whole  of  the  late  war, 
and  an  active  member  also  of  the  Federal  Convention ; 
a   man  who  had  risen,  by  his   native   energy,  from  the 
shoe-maker's  bench  to  distinction   as  a  lawyer  and  emi- 
nence  as  a  legislator,  possessing  an  unrivaled  reputation 
for    sound  judgment    and    sober   good    sense.      Jonathan 
Trumbull    and    Jeremiah    Wadsworth,  two    of   his    col- 
leagues, had  successfully  filled,  during  the  late  wrar,  the 
responsible   and   difficult   post   of  commissary   general  to 
the    Revolutionary    army.      Samuel    Livermore,    one    of 
the   three   representatives   from  New  Hampshire,  was   a 
man  of  decided  ability.      The  southern  districts  of  New 
York  were  ably  represented  by  Egbert  Benson  and  John 
Lawrence.      From    New    Jersey    came    Elias    Boudinot, 
commissary   of  prisoners  during  the  Revolutionary  war, 
and    afterward    President    of  the    Continental    Congress. 
Of  the  eight  members  to  which  Pennsylvania  was  enti- 
cled,  six  were  men  of  mark  :   George  Clymer,  a  signer 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  active  through- 
out the  Revolutionary  war  ;  General  Peter  Muhlenburg, 
and  his  brother,  Frederic  A.  Muhlenburg,  late  President 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Convention  which  had  ratified  the 
Constitution ;    Thomas  Hartley,   late  a  colonel  in   tho 
Pennsylvania  Continental  line ;  Thomas  Fitzsimmons,  a 
distinguished   merchant   of   Philadelphia ;    and   Thomas 
Scott,    from    the    settlements   west    of   the   Alleganies. 


44  HISTORY    OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  From  the   little   State   of  Delaware,  which  has  seldom 

failed  to  be  ably  represented   on  the  floor  of  Congress, 

1789.  came  John  Vining.  Such  was  Patrick  Henry's  antipa- 
thy to  Madison,  growing  out  of  his  warm  advocacy  of 
the  Federal  Constitution,  at  least  such  is  Jefferson's  ac- 
count, that,  not  content  with  excluding  him  from  the 
Senate,  the  Representative  districts  had  been  arranged 
with  a  special  view  to  his  exclusion  from  the  House. 
Monroe  ran  against  him  ;  but  by  a  very  active  canvass, 
being  the  son  of  a  wealthy  planter,  with  numerous  and 
influential  relations,  Madison  succeeded  in  securing  an 
election.  But  he  found  it  necessary  to  publish  an  ad- 
dress, a  sort  of  counterpart  to  Gerry's,  admitting  his 
hostility  to  a  new  Federal  Convention,  but  declaring 
himself  favorable  to  amendments  of  the  Constitution  by 
Congress  and  the  States.  Madison  excepted,  the  Vir- 
ginia delegation  was  not  distinguished  for  talent.  The 
leading  member  next  to  him  was  John  Page,  represent- 
ative of  one  of  the  old  colonial  aristocratic  families,  his 
father  having  been  one  of  the  royal  counselors.  The 
son  had  very  wrarmly  espoused  the  popular  cause,  and 
had  been  brought  forward,  during  the  Revolutionary 
war,  as  a  competitor  with  Jefferson  for  the  office  of 
governor,  after  the  expiration  of  Henry's  first  term. 
Page,  however,  was  not  ambitious  ;  he  had  been  put 
forward  by  his  friends  rather  than  by  himself,  and  this 
competition  had  not  disturbed  the  friendship  between 
him  and  Jefferson.  Of  moderate  abilities,  benevolent 
temper,  and  a  probity  universally  admitted  and  admired, 
he  pushed  the  Republican  theory  to  a  greater  extreme 
than  even  Jefferson  himself.  The  greater  part  of  the 
Virginia  representatives  were  decided  anti-Federalists. 

A  sudden  revolution  in  the  politics  of  South  Carolina 
had  caused  an  anti-Federal  delegation  to  be  elected  in  the 


MEMBERS   OF  THE  FIRST  CONGRESS.  45 

country  districts  of  that  state.     Among  the  number  were  CHAPTEJ 

^Edanus  Burke,   distinguished  for  a  pamphlet  against 

the  Cincinnati ;  also  General  Sumter,  the  celebrated  par-  1789. 
tisan  officer.  The  Charleston  district  was  represented 
by  a  Federalist,  William  L.  Smith,  soon  distinguished  as 
a  leading  debater.  Smith's  right  to  sit  in  the  House 
was  called  in  question  on  the  ground  that  he  was  not 
legally  a  citizen,  at  least  not  for  a  sufficient  period  to  be 
qualified  under  the  Constitution.  It  appeared  that  he 
had  gone  to  England  in  1770  to  be  educated,  being  then 
twelve  years  of  age,  and  had  not  returned  till  after  the 
peace  with  Great  Britain.  But  it  also  appeared  that 
South  Carolina  had  recognized  the  citizenship  of  all 
young  natives  of  the  colony  sent  to  England  for  educa- 
tion, and  by  an  act  of  1779  had  allowed  them  to  re- 
main till  twenty-two  years  of  age,  after  which,  if  they 
did  not  return,  their  property  was  to  be  liable  to  double 
taxes.  Smith's  education,  talents,  and  extensive  prop- 
erty  had  brought  him  at  once  into  notice  on  his  return 
to  Charleston.  His  right  of  citizenship  had  never  been 
questioned  at  home,  and  it  was  sustained  by  the  House 
with  only  one  dissenting  vote.  The  two  Georgia  repre- 
sentatives were  both  able  men  :  Abraham  Baldwin,  an 
immigrant  from  Connecticut,  since  the  peace,  had  been 
one  of  the  Georgia  delegates  in  the  Federal  Convention ; 
James  Jackson,  his  colleague,  born  in  England,  had  emi- 
grated to  Georgia  in  his  boyhood,  had  taken  an  active 
share  in  the  Revolution,  and  long  continued  to  play  a 
leading  part  in  the  violent  local  politics  of  that  frontier 
state. 

The  House,  when  full,  would  consist  of  fifty-nine  mem- 
bers, exclusive  of  those  allowed  by  the  Constitution  to 
Rhode  Island  and  North  Carolina.  Massachusetts,  New 
York,  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  South  Carolina  had 


4  ()  HlSlORif   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  chosen  their  representatives  by  districts,  as  being  the 
'  method  best  adapted  to  give  a  full  expression  to  the  pop- 
1789.  ular  will.  New  Hampshire,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey, 
and  Georgia  had  .chosen  by  general  ticket,  that  being 
deemed  the  best  method  of  concentrating  political  strength 
and  keeping  out  anti-Federalists.  Connecticut  adopted 
a  peculiar  method,  which  she  continued  to  follow  for 
many  years.  The  voters  were  first  called  upon  to  nom- 
inate a  list  of  candidates,  three  times  the  number  to  be 
chosen,  of  persons  fit  to  represent  them  in  Congress. 
This  list  having  been  duly  published,  a  selection  was  made 
from  it,  at  a  subsequent  election,  of  the  number  to  which 
the  state  was  entitled.  In  the  more  southern  states  a 
choice  by  pluralities  was  generally  adopted ;  in  New 
England,  a  majority  of  all  the  votes  was  necessary  to 
elect.  This  latter  method  led  often  to  repeated  elections 
before  a  choice  could  be  made,  and  sometimes  to  long- 
continued  vacancies — an  inconvenience  so  sensibly  felt 
that  the  plurality  system  has  finally  prevailed  in  all  but 
one  or  two  states. 

The  Continental  Congress  had  been  accommodated  in 
the  old  City  Hall  of  New  York,  situated  on  Wall  Street, 
opposite  Broad  Street,  the  site  now  so  magnificently  oc- 
cupied by  the  United  States  Custom-house.  But  this 
building  had  fallen  greatly  to  decay  ;  the  city  had  no 
funds  in  hand  with  which  to  make  repairs ;  the  Conti- 
nental Treasury  was  equally  empty,  and  had  it  been 
otherwise,  no  quorum  of  the  states  could  be  obtained  com- 
petent to  authorize  the  expenditure  of  money.  Anxious 
for  the  due  accommodation  of  the  national  Legislature, 
and  desirous  to  hold  out  to  Congress  every  inducement 
to  make  New  York  its  permanent  seat,  several  wealthy 
citizens  advanced  on  this  emergency  the  sum  of  $32,500 
With  these  funds  a  remodeling  and  extensive  repairs 


FEDERAL    HALL.  47 

were   at  once  commenced,  and   the  renovated  building,  CHAPTEP 

renamed    "Federal    Hall,"   was    placed,    by    the    city . 

council,  at  the  disposal  of  the  new  Congress.  The  day  1789. 
appointed  for  that  body  to  meet  was  ushered  in  by  the  March  4 
firing  of  cannon  and  the  ringing  of  bells,  repeated  at  noon 
and  at  sunset ;  but,  somewhat  to  the  mortification  of  the 
more  zealous  Federalists,  only  eight  senators  and  thirteen 
representatives  made  their  appearance — not  enough  to 
form  a  quorum  of  either  house.  Not  having  received 
any  accession  to  their  number,  the  senators  present  issued, 
ft  few  days  after,  a  pressing  circular  letter  to  their  ab-  March  il 
sent  colleagues.  At  the  end  of  another  week  a  second 
circular  was  issued :  but  the  month  had  almost  expired 
before  either  house  could  muster  a  quorum.  In  the  lat- 
ter days  of  the  Confederation,  sad  habits  had  been  intro- 
duced of  negligence  and  delay  in  all  that  related  to  fed- 
eral affairs.  Want  of  punctuality  was,  indeed,  far  more 
excusable  then  than  now.  As  yet  public  conveyances 
were  rare,  indeed  almost  unknown.  The  Continental 
Congress  had  lately  authorized  the  postmaster  general  to 
contract  for  the  transmission  of  the  mail  over  the  great 
route  along  the  sea-coast  by  a  line  of  stages,  to  carry 
passengers  also;  but  this  scheme,  as  yet,  was  very  im- 
perfectly carried  out,  and  most  of  the  members  were 
obliged  to  make  their  way  to  New  York  slowly  on  horse- 
back, or  else  by  sea,  at  that  time  the  usual  and  almost 
sole  means  of  communication  between  New  York  and 
the  extreme  southern  states.  At  that  early  season  of 
the  year,  the  roads  in  many  places,  and  especially  the 
fords  of  the  rivers,  were  apt  to  be  rendered  impassable 
by  floods — a  topic  in  which  the  New  York  newspapers 
found  consolation  for  the  tardiness  of  Congress  in  com- 
ing together  Add  to  this  that,  owing  in  some  cases  to 
the  late  day  fixed  for  the  election,  in  others  to  repeated 


48  HISTORY   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  failures  of  choice,  a  part  of  the  representatives  were  not 

yet  chosen.      It  accorded  with  this  general  system  of 

1789.  tardiness,  that  Federal  Hall,  not  yet  completed,  was  still 
under  the  hands  of  the  carpenters. 

Thirty  representatives,  just  a  quorum,  having  at  last 
March  30.  made  their  appearance,  the  House  proceeded  to  organize 
itself.  The  result  of  the  presidential  election,  though 
the  votes  were  not  yet  officially  declared,  was  already 
well  known.  As  the  offices  of  president  and  vice-presi- 
dent had  been  filled  from  Virginia  and  Massachusetts, 
it  seemed  fit  to  take  the  speaker  from  Pennsylvania, 
the  next  state  in  wealth  and  pcpulation.  Frederic  A. 
Muhlenburg  was  accordingly  chosen  by  ballot  and  con- 
ducted to  the  chair,  an  honor  which  he  duly  acknowl- 
edged. Muhlenburg  was  a  man  of  wealth,  engaged  in 
the  sugar-refining  business  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 
April  6  The  Monday  following,  the  Senate  having  also  ob- 
tained a  quorum,  Langdon  being  chosen  president  of 
that  body,  "  for  the  sole  purpose  of  opening  and  count- 
ing the  votes  for  President  of  the  United  States,"  a  mes- 
sage was  sent  to  the  other  house  that  the  Senate  were 
ready  in  their  chamber  to  proceed  to  count  the  votes. 
The  Representatives  proceeded  to  the  Senate  Chamber; 
the  votes  were  opened,  and,  as  they  were  read  off  by  the 
presiding  officer,  two  lists  were  made  out,  a  senator  and 
two  representatives  having  been  appointed  for  that  pur- 
pose by  their  respective  houses.  The  representatives 
having  withdrawn,  Langdon  was  elected  president  of  the 
Senate  pro  tempore.  The  result  of  the  election  was  of- 
ficially declared  to  the  two  houses  by  their  respective 
presiding  officers.  Washington  had  received  sixty-nine 
votes,  that  being  the  whole  number  of  electors  voting. 
The  votes  for  the  second  candidate  were  somewhat  scat- 
tered. Nine  votes,  those  of  New  Jersey,  Delaware, 


PRESIDENT    AND    VICE-PRESIDENT    ELECT.        49 

sne  of  Virginia,  were  given  to  John  Jay ;  the  six  Mary-  CHAPTER 

land  votes  to  Robert  H.  Harrison,  formerly  Washing- 

ton's  secretary,  and  then  chief  justice  of  that  state,*  the  1789 
six  South  Carolina  votes  to  John  Rutledge ;  two  votes 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  one  each  of  Virginia  and  South 
Carolina,  to  John  Hancock  ;  three  of  Virginia  to  George 
Clinton  ;  two  of  Connecticut  to  Samuel  Huntington,  late 
President  of  Congress,  and  now  governor  of  that  state ; 
one  of  the  Georgia  votes  to  General  Lincoln,  and  four 
others  to  three  citizens  of  that  state  who  did  not  enjoy 
a  Continental  reputation.  John  Adams  received  the  en- 
tire vote  of  Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire,  five  votes 
out  of  seven  in  Connecticut,  one  in  New  Jersey,  eight 
out  of  ten  in  Pennsylvania,  and  five  out  of  ten  in  Vir- 
ginia— thirty-four  in  all ;  not  a  majority,  but  sufficient, 
as  the  Constitution  then  stood,  being  the  second  highest 
number,  to  make  him  vice-president.  Adams  had  lately 
returned  from  a  nine  years'  diplomatic  residence  abroad, 
the  latter  part  of  the  time  as  minister  to  England,  a  sta- 
tion from  which  he  had  been  tacitly  recalled  by  the  ex- 
piration of  the  three  years  to  which,  by  a  resolution  of 
the  Continental  Congress,  all  diplomatic  appointments 
had  been  limited.  England  having  appointed  no  minis- 
ter to  America,  it  had  not  been  thought  proper  to  con- 
tinue the  mission. 

The  notification  of  the  president  and  vice-president 
elect  was  intrusted  by  the  House  to  the  Senate,  and  two 
special  messengers  were  dispatched  for  that  purpose,  pro- 
vided with  formal  certificates  of  the  result  of  the  vote,  and 
letters  of  congratulation  drawn  up  by  a  committee  and 
signed  by  Langdon.  A  joint  committee  of  the  two  houses 
was  also  appointed  to  prepare  an  appropriate  reception. 

During  the  absence  of  the  messengers,  the  two  houses 
busied  themselves  upon  rules  and  orders  of  proceeding, 
TV— P 


50  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  to  draft  which  they  appointed  their  separate  committees, 

„ and  also  a  joint  committee  on  the  choice  of  a  chaplain 

1789.  and  on  rules  to  govern  the  two  houses  in  cases  of  con- 
ference. The  rules  adopted  on  the  reports  of  these  com- 
mittees, though  since  modified  in  some  particulars,  still 
continue  to  form  the  basis  of  congressional  action.  The 
powers  to  preserve  order  given  to  the  President  of  the 
Senate  and  the  Speaker  of  the  House,  and  those  relating 
to  the  course  of  debate  and  decorum  of  conduct,  were  the 
same  which  had  been  in  force  in  the  Continental  Con- 
gress, and  which  prevailed  in  all  the  state  legislative  as- 
semblies. 

In  the  Senate,  committees  were  to  be  chosen  by  bal- 
lot, a  practice  still  kept  up  ;  in  the  House,  their  appoint- 
ment was  to  be  by  the  speaker,  unless  they  were  to  con- 
sist of  more  than  three  members,  in  which  case  the  ap- 
pointment was  to  be  by  ballot.  This  rule  lasted,  how- 
ever, only  for  the  session  ;  at  the  commencement  of  the 
next  session  it  was  modified  into  the  shape  which  it  still 
retains,  the  appointment  of  all  committees  being  given 
to  the  speaker,  except  when  otherwise  expressly  ordered. 
The  rules  of  the  House  provided  for  a  single  standing 
committee — one  on  elections — the  beginning  of  a  system 
since  so  extended  as  to  exercise  almost  complete  control 
over  the  business  of  the  House.  This,  however,  was  a 
work  of  time  ;  no  other  standing  committees  were  add- 
ed till  several  sessions  afterward,  and  for  many  years  the 
number  was  limited  to  four  or  five. 

In  the  House,  bills  could  only  be  introduced  by  com- 
mittees to  whom  the  subject-matter  had  been  referred 
Every  bill  was  required  to  receive  three  readings  on  three 
different  days.  It  was  made  a  standing  order  of  the  day 
for  the  House  to  resolve  itself  into  committee  of  the  whole 
on  the  state  of  the  Union,  for  the  consideration  and  free 


RULES    OF    PROCEEDING.  53 

discussion  of  such  bills  or  motions  as  might  be  committed  CHAPTER 
to  it,  the  speaker  in  that  case  to  leave  the  chair,  having , 
first  appointed  a  chairman  to  preside  ;  but  no  vote  or  pro-  1789 
eeeding  in  committee  of  the  whole  was  to  be  binding  un- 
less subsequently  confirmed  by  the  House. 

Jn  the  Senate,  every  member  had  the  right  of  intro- 
ducing bills.  The  use  of  formal  committees  of  the  whole 

C5 

was  not  adopted  ;  but  all  bills,  on  their  second  reading, 
were  to  be  freely  discussed,  as  if  in  committee  of  the 
whole.  Both  houses  adopted  the  practice,  borrowed  from 
the  British  Parliament,  of  founding  bills  upon  resolution? 
discussed  in  committee  of  the  whole  and  adopted  by  the 
House,  the  principal  discussion  being  thus  made  to  pre- 
cede the  introduction  of  the  bill — a  method  since,  in  a 
great  measure,  superseded  by  the  practice  of  referring 
every  new  proposition  to  one  or  other  of  the  numerous 
standing  committees.  The  previous  question,  as  a  means 
of  stopping  debate,  was  hardly  known  in  the  early  Con- 
gresses. A  refusal  to  order  the  previous  question  was 
considered  equivalent  to  a  dismissal  of  the  subject,  for 
which  purpose  that  motion  was  occasionally  employed. 

Some  difference  arose  as  to  the  method  of  communi- 
cating bills  from  one  house  to  the  other.  The  Senate 
proposed  to  send  theirs  by  their  secretary,  and  that  bills 
from  the  House  be  brought  up  by  two  members  of  that 
body,  to  be  received  by  the  senators  standing.  The 
House  refused  to  consent  to  any  such  distinction,  and 
the  Senate  finally  agreed  to  receive  bills  by  such  messen- 
gers as  the  House  might  appoint. 

In  case  of  amendments  to  bills  proposed  by  one  house 
and  disagreed  to  by  the  other,  but  still  insisted  upon,  com- 
mittees of  conference  were  to  be  appointed  at  the  request 
of  either  house,  for  the  purpose  of  arranging  the  difference. 

While  on  their  passage  between  the  two  houses,  bills 


32  HISTORY    OP    THE    UNITED    STATES*. 

CHAPTER  were  to  be  engrossed  on  paper.    After  their  passage,  the} 

_ were  to  be  enrolled  on  parchment,  and  after  the  correct- 

1789.  ness  of  the  enrollment  had  been  verified  and  reported 
upon  by  a  joint  standing  committee  appointed  for  that 
purpose,  they  were  to  be  signed  first  by  the  Speaker  of 
the  House  and  then  by  the  President  of  the  Senate,  and 
afterward  the  same  joint  committee  were  to  present  them 
to  the  president  for  his  signature,  the  day  of  presentation, 
as  reported  by  the  committee,  to  be  entered  on  the  jour- 
nals of  both  houses. 

In  addition  to  its  clerk,  who  had  the  making  up  of  the 
journal,  under  the  superintendence  of  the  speaker,  the 
House  appointed  a  sergeant-at-arms  as  its  executive  offi- 
cer for  the  arrest  of  absent  or  disorderly  members,  or 
other  persons  who  might  infringe  the  dignity  of  the 
House  ;  also  a  door-keeper,  with  assistants,  and  a  messen- 
ger. The  Senate  had  a  secretary,  corresponding  to  the 
clerk  of  the  House,  a  door-keeper,  and  a  messenger. 
Two  chaplains  were  to  be  chosen,  of  different  denomina- 
tions, one  by  the  Senate,  the  other  by  the  House,  to  in- 
terchange weekly.  The  House  sat  with  open  doors,  the 
public  were  admitted  to  hear  the  debates,  and  reporters 
were  accommodated  with  seats  on  the  floor.  The  Senate 
imitated  the  example  of  the  Continental  Congress,  trans- 
acting all  its  business  with  closed  doors,  a  practice  con- 
tinued for  several  sessions,  till  public  opinion  compelled 
its  abandonment. 

Vice-president  Adams  having  received  official  notice 
of  his  election,  after  the  honor  of  an  entertainment  from 
Governor  Hancock,  departed  for  New  York,  under  the 
escort  of  a  troop  of  horse.  He  was  attended  in  like 
manner  through  Connecticut,  and,  by  order  of  Govern- 
or Clinton,  was  received  at  the  New  York  line  in  a 
similar  way.  From  King's  Bridge,  at  the  upper  end  of 


VICE-PRESIDENT    A'DAMS.  53 

York  Island,  he  was  attended  into  the  city  by  the  joint  CHAPTEB 
committee  of  arrangements  of  the  two  houses,  by  a  nu-         ' 
merous  concourse  of  citizens,  and  by  several  companies  1789. 
of  the  city  militia.     Introduced  into  the  Senate  Chamber 
jy  a  committee  appointed  for  that  purpose,  and  conduct-  April  2t. 
ed  to  the  cl  air  by  Langdon,  he  addressed  the  Senate  in 
a  short  but  characteristic  inaugural  speech.      "  Invited 
to  this  respectable  situation  by  the  suffrages  of  our  fel- 
low-citizens, according  to  the  Constitution,  I  have  thought 
it  my  duty  cheerfully  and  readily  to  accept  it.      Unac- 
customed to  refuse  any  public  service,  however  danger- 
ous to  my  reputation  or  disproportional  to  my  talents,  it 
would  have  been  inconsistent  to  have  adopted  any  other 
maxim  of  conduct  'at  this  time,  when  the  prosperity  of 
the  country  and  the  liberties,  of  the  people  require  per- 
haps as  much  as  ever  the  attention  of  those  who  possess 
any  share  of  the  public  confidence." 

After  some  very  high  compliments  to  the  senators  and 
to  the  president  elect,  and  some  apologies  for  himself,  as 
having,  though  not  wholly  without  experience  in  public 
assemblies,  been  more  accustomed  to  take  a  share  in  their 
debates  than  to  preside  over  their  deliberations,  he  con- 
cluded as  follows  :  "A  trust  of  the  greatest  magnitude 
is  committed  to  this  legislature,  and  the  eyes  of  the  world 
are  upon  you.  Your  country  expects  from  the  results 
of  your  deliberations,  in  concurrence  with  the  other 
branches  of  government,  consideration  abroad  and  con- 
tentment at  home — prosperity,  order,  justice,  peace,  and 
liberty  ;  and  may  God  Almighty's  providence  assist  you 
to  answer  their  just  expectations  !" 

The  messenger  selected  to  inform  Washington  of  his 
election  was  Charles  Thompson,  who  had  filled  the  place 
of  secretary  to  the  Continental  Congress  during  the  whole 
oeriod  of  its  existence.  Having  arrived  at  Mount  Ver- 


54  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATED 

CHAPTER  non  in  company  with  two  gentlemen  of  Alexandria,  he 

executed  his  commission  in  a  formal  speech,  to  which 

1789.  Washington  made  an  equally  formal  reply,  declaring  his 
16>  acceptance  of  the  office,  and  his  readiness  to  leave  witniii 
two  days  to  enter  upon  it. 

From  the  moment  it  had  become  certain  that  the  Con- 
stitution was  to  go  into  effect,  Washington  had  been 
very  warmly  pressed  by  numerous  correspondents  not  to 
decline  that  post  for  which  he  was  so  singularly  quali- 
fied by  the  choice  and  the  confidence  of  the  entire  nation. 
The  general  expectation  that  he  would  be  president  had 
contributed  not  a  little  to  calm  down  the  excitement 
against  the  new  Constitution,  and  to  give  to  its  friends 
so  decided  a  predominance  in  the  choice  of  members  of 
the  first  Congress.  Fortunate,  indeed,  it  was  for  the 
nation  to  possess  at  this  crisis  of  its  fate  a  man  not  only 
fit  to  fill  the  office  of  president,  but  one  in  whose  fitness 
the  whole  people  were  agreed. 

Washington  desired  to  proceed  to  New  York  in  the 
most  private  manner,  but  the  flow  of  veneration  and 
gratitude  could  not  be  suppressed.  Having  been  enter- 
tained at  a  public  dinner  by  his  neighbors  of  Alexandria, 
he  was  welcomed  to  Maryland  by  a  collection  of  citizens 
assembled  at  Georgetown.  At  the  frontier  of  Pennsyl- 
vania he  was  met  by  a  large  escort,  headed  by  Mifflin, 
recently  elected  president  of  that  state,  to  whom  it  thus 
again  fell  to  be  the  instrument  of  paying  honors  to  the 
man  he  had  once  wronged.  A  magnificent  reception 
and  a  splendid  entertainment  were  prepared  at  Philadel- 
phia, where  the  Executive  Council,  the  trustees  of  the 
University,  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  officers 
of  the  Cincinnati,  and  the  mayor  and  common  council 
of  the  city,  hastened  tc  wait  on  the  president  elect  witb 
their  congratulations 


WASHINGTON'S    JOURNEY.  55 

Ascending  the  left  bank  of  the  Delaware,  Washington  CHAPTER 
crossed  the  next  day  into  New  Jersey.      The  people  of  ________ 

Trenton  remembered  the  battles  fought  in  their  neigh-  1789. 
horhood  twelve  years  before,  and  if  his  reception  at  other 
places  was  more  splendid,  nowhere  was  it  so  graceful 
and  touching.  On  the  bridge  across  the  Assumpink, 
which  flows  through  the  town  into  the  Delaware,  the 
same  bridge  across  which  Washington  had  retreated 
before  Cornwallis's  army  on  the  eve  of  the  battle  of 
Princeton,  a  triumphal  arch  had  been  erected,  supported 
on  thirteen  pillars,  twined  with  evergreens,  flowers,  and 
laurel.  Beneath  this  arch,  which  bore  for  inscription 
"  The  Defender  of  the  Mothers  will  be  the  Protector  of 
the  Daughters,"  were  assembled  a  party  of  matrons, 
mixed  with  young  girls  dressed  in  white,  and  holding 
baskets  of  flowers  in  their  hands.  As  Washington  ap- 
proached they  began  to  sing  a  little  ode  prepared  for  the 
occasion : 

Welcome,  mighty  chief,  once  more 
Welcome  to  this  grateful  shore  ; 
Now  no  mercenary  foe 
Aims  again  the  fatal  blow, 
Aims  at  thee  the  fatal  blow. 

Virgins  fair  and  matrons  grave, 
Those  thy  conquering  arm  did  save, 
Build  for  thee  triumphal  bowers  ; 
Strew,  ye  fair,  his  way  with  flowers  ! 
Strew  your  hero's  way  with  flowers  ! 

{Suiting  the  action  to  the  words,  they  ended  the  chant 
in  strewing  their  flowers  before  him. 

Having  crossed  New  Jersey,  Washington  was  received  April  aa 
at  Elizabethtown  Point  early  in  the  morning,  in  accord- 
ance with  a  previous  arrangement,  by  a  committee  of 
both  Houses  of  Congress,  with  whom  were  Jay,  Secreta- 
ry for  Foreign  Affairs,  General  Knox,  Secretary  at  War, 
Samuel  Osgood,  Arthur  Lee.  and  Walter  Livingston, 


5£  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  commissioners  of  the  Treasury,  and  Ebenezer  Hazard, 
'  Postmaster  General,  these  heads  of  departments  still  con- 
1789.  tinuing.to  act  under  their  appointments  from  the  Conti- 
nental Congress  until  new  arrangements  could  be  made. 
A  barge  splendidly  fitted  up,  and  manned  by  thirteen 
pilots  in  white  uniforms,  had  been  provided  to  convey 
the  president  to  New  York  ;  and  quite  a  naval  proces- 
sion was  formed  out  of  a  multitude  of  other  boats  and 
barges.  After  a  voyage  of  several  hours,  the  approach 
to  New  York  was  welcomed  by  artillery  salutes  from 
the  battery  and  the  ships  in  the  harbor.  At  the  land- 
ing-place at  the  foot  of  Wall  Street,  appropriately  deco- 
rated for  the  occasion,  Governor  Clinton  was  in  waiting, 
with  the  principal  state  officers  and  those  of  the  city 
corporation,  and  a  vast  concourse  of  citizens.  A  proces- 
sion, headed  by  a  numerous  detachment  of  the  city  mi- 
litia, having  been  formed  under  a  salute  of  cannon,  the 
president  elect  was  escorted  to  the  house  lately  occupied 
by  the  President  of  the  Continental  Congress,  and  which 
the  new  Federal  Congress  had  ordered  to  be  fitted  up  for 
his  reception.  Hence  he  proceeded  to  Governor  Clin- 
ton's, where  he  was  entertained  at  dinner.  The  evening 
closed  with  a  brilliant  display  of  fire-works. 

As  the  new  Federal  Hall  was  not  yet  entirely  finished, 
a  week  elapsed  before  preparations  were  completed  for 
administering  to  the  president  elect  the  oath  of  office. 
The  place  selected  for  that  purpose  was  the  outer  gal- 
lery or  balcony  of  the  Senate  Chamber,  visible  for  a  long 
distance  down  Broad  Street,  which  it  fronted,  thus  afford- 
ing opportunity  to  witness  the  ceremony  to  a  large  num- 
ber of  eager  spectators.  At  nine  o'clock  all  the  churches 
in  the  city  were  opened  for  prayer  and  religious  services. 

Apri)  3u.  A  little  after  noon  the  president  elect  left  his  house  es- 
corted by  the  city  cavalry,  and  attended  by  a  committee 


INAUGURATION    OF    THE    PRESIDENT.  5«j 

of  Congress  and  the  heads  of  departments  in  carriages,  CHAPTEH 
followed  by  the  two  or  three  resident  foreign  ministers,  , 

and  by  a  long  procession  of  citizens.  Having  entered  1789. 
the  Senate  Chamber,  where  the  two  houses  were  assem- 
bled to  receive  him,  he  was  conducted  to  an  elevated 
seat  at  the  head  of  the  room.  After  a  momentary  si- 
lence, all  being  seated,  the  vice-president  rose  and  stated 
to  the  president  elect  that  all  was  ready  for  the  admin- 
istration of  the  oath,  whenever  he  was  prepared  to  receive 
it.  Upon  this  intimation,  Washington  proceeded  to  the 
balcony,  followed  by  the  senators  and  representatives. 
The  oath  was  administered  by  the  Chancellor  of  New 
York,  Robert  R.  Livingston,  Jay's  predecessor  as  Secre- 
tary for  Foreign  Affairs.  As  he  finished  the  ceremony, 
he  exclaimed  aloud,  "  Long  live  George  Washington, 
President  of  the  United  States  !"  to  which  the  assembled 
multitude  responded  in  long  and  enthusiastic  shouts. 

Having  returned  to  the  Senate  Chamber,  accompanied 
by  the  senators  and  representatives,  and  all  having  re- 
sumed their  seats,  Washington  rose  and  delivered  a  short 
inaugural  address.  He  spoke  of  the  conflict  of  emotions 
with  which  he  had  heard  the  voice  of  his  country,  never 
listened  to  but  with  veneration  and  love,  calling  upon 
him  to  quit  the  retreat  of  his  choice,  made  dearer  by 
habit,  age,  and  declining  health,  to  assume  an  office 
which  might  well  awaken  a  distrustful  scrutiny  of  qual- 
ifications in  the  wisest  and  most  experienced,  and  sufficient 
to  overwhelm  with  despair  one  inheriting  inferior  endow- 
ments from  nature,  and  unpracticed  in  the  duties  of  civil 
administration.  If  in  this  case  his  decision  had  been  too 
much  swayed  by  remembrance  of  the  pa^t,  he  still  trust- 
ed for  palliation  of  his  error  to  the  partiality  of  his  country. 

He  expressed  his  devout  gratitude  to  Heaven,  and 
called  upon  Congress  to  join  him  in  it,  for  the  good  prov- 


38  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED  STATES 

CHAPTEH  idence  which  seemed  thus  far  to  have  watched  over  Amer- 
___   ican  affairs  ;   and  from  the  character  of  the  men  about 


1789    him,  to  whom  the  organization  of  the  government  waa 
intrusted,  he  drew  happy  prognostications  of  success. 

It  was  hardly  the  proper  time,  with  no  opportunity  as 
yet  to  become  acquainted  with  the  exact  state  of  affairs, 
to  exercise  his  constitutional  duty  of  recommending  meas- 
ures to  their  consideration  ;  yet  one  topic  he  could  not 
entirely  pass  over,  that  of  amendments  to  the  new  Con- 
stitution. It  was  well  worthy  the  most  serious  atten- 
tion of  Congress,  whether,  while  carefully  avoiding  every 
alteration  which  might  endanger  the  benefits  of  a  united 
and  effective  government,  or  which  ought  to  await  the 
lessons  of  experience,  a  reverence  for  the  characteristic 
rights  of  freemen,  and  regard  for  the  public  harmony, 
might  not  suggest  some  provisions  by  which  those  rights 
might  be  still  more  impregnably  fortified,  and  that  har 
mony  safely  promoted.  Having  suggested  that  he  de- 
sired, as  while  he  held  his  former  office  of  commander- 
in-chief,  no  other  compensation  for  his  services  than  the 
bare  reimbursement  of  his  expenses,  he  closed  with  re- 
newed expressions  of  devout  gratitude,  and  supplications 
for  further  aid,  protection,  and  guidance. 

The  speech  finished,  the  two  houses,  accompanied  by 
the  president,  proceeded  to  St.  Paul's  Church,  where 
prayers  suited  to  the  occasion  were  read  by  Provoost,  the 
lately-ordained  bishop  of  New  York,  who  had  been  select- 
ed by  the  Senate  as  one  of  the  chaplains  of  Congress. 
These  services  over,  the  president  was  escorted  back  to 
his  own  house.  In  the  evening  there  was  a  display  of 
fire-works  at  the  Battery,  and  the  houses  of  the  French 
and  Spanish  ministers  were  illuminated. 

Similar  exhibitions  of  public  consideration  were  ex- 
tended also  to  the  president's  family.  Mrs.  Washington; 


PRESIDENTIAL    TITLES.  59 

who  arrived  at  New  York  about  a  month  after,  was  met  CHAPTER 

by  the  president  and  other  official  persons  at  Elizabeth- 

town  Point ;  she  received,  as  she  passed  the  Battery,  the  1789. 
federal  salute  of  thirteen  guns,  was  welcomed  by  a  crowd 
at  the  landing-place,  and  escorted  to  her  house  with  mili- 
tary parade. 

In  all  this  there  was  nothing  very  extravagant.  The 
same  thing,  and  much  more,  has  been  since  repeated 
again  and  again,  when  not  the  man,  but  the  office  merely, 
was  the  object  of  respect.  Yet  there  were  not  wanting 
sturdy  Republicans  who  looked  on  with  doubt  and  sus- 
picion, as  if  they  saw  in  this  parade  an  ominous  fore- 
shadowing of  monarchical  ceremonies. 

These  suspicions,  not  without  considerable  influence 
on  the  future  politics  of  the  country,  received  additional 
impulse  from  another  circumstance.  On  the  day  of 
Washington's  arrival,  the  Senate  had  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  confer  with  such  committee  as  the  House  might 
appoint,  as  to  what  titles,  if  any,  it  would  be  proper  to 
annex  to  the  offices  of  president  and  vice-president.  This 
joint  committee  reported  that  it  would  not  be  proper  to 
make  use  of  any  other  styles  or  titles  of  office  than  those 
"  expressed  in  the  Constitution."  In  the  House  this  re- 
port was  adopted  without  objection ;  but  it  did  not  sat- 
isfy the  Senate.  The  subject  having  been  referred  to 
a  new  special  committee,  consisting  of  Richard  Henry 
Lee,  Izard  of  South  Carolina,  and  Dalton  of  Massachu- 
setts, they  reported  that  it  would  be  proper  to  employ, 
in  addressing  the  president,  the  style  of  u  His  Highness, 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  Protector  of  their 
Liberties."  By  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts,  the 
governor  of  that  state  was  invested  with  the  title  of 
"His  Excellency,"  and  the  lieutenant  governor  with  that 
of  "  His  Honor."  The  Constitution  of  Gjorgia  bestowed 


60  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES, 

CHAPTER  on  the  governor  of  that  state  the  title  of  "  Honorable.'-' 

_        The  President  of  the  United  States,  it  was  argued,  ought 

1  789.  to  have  some  more  distinguishing  title.  Before  this  re 
port  came  up  for  consideration,  the  committee  by  whom 
it  had  been  made  was  authorized  to  confer  on  the  subject 
with  any  such  committee  as  the  House  might  appoint. 
This  invitation  for  a  new  joint  committee  excited  quite 
a  warm  debate  in  the  House.  The  matter,  it  was  said, 
had  been  once  already  decided,  and  it  was  moved  on  that 
ground  not  to  concur  in  the  proposed  new  committee. 
While  advocating  this  motion,  Page  thought,  however, 
that  they  ought  to  begin  with  themselves.  "  He  felt  a 
good  deal  hurt  that  gentlemen  on  the  floor,  after  having 
refused  permission  to  the  clerk  to  enter  any  thing  more 
than  their  plain  names  on  the  journal,  should  be  stand- 
ing up  and  addressing  each  other  by  the  title  of  the 
i  honorable  gentleman.'  He  wished  the  practice  could 
be  got  over,  because  it  added  neither  to  the  honor  nor  to 
the  dignity  of  the  House."  Tucker  of  South  Carolina, 
who  had  opposed  the  appointment  of  the  first  committee, 
argued  warmly  against  a  new  one.  "What,  sir,  is  the 
intention  of  this  business  ?  Will  it  not  alarm  our  fel- 
low-citizens ?  Will  it  not  give  them  just  cause  of 
alarm  ?  Will  they  not  say  that  they  have  been  deceived 
by  the  Convention  that  framed  the  Constitution,  and 
that  it  has  been  contrived  with  a  view  to  lead  them  on 
by  degrees  to  that  kind  of  government  which  they  have 
thrown  off  with  abhorrence?  Shall  we  not  justify  the 
fears  of  those  who  were  opposed  to  the  Constitution,  be- 
cause they  considered  it  as  insidious  and  hostile  to  the 
liberties  of  the  people  ?  Does  the  dignity  of  a  nation 
consist  in  the  distance  between  the  first  magistrate  and 
the  citizens  ;  in  the  exaltation  of  one  man  and  the  humil- 
iation of  the  rest  ?  If  so,  the  most  despotic  government 


PRESIDENTIAL   TITLES.  5  j 

is  the  most  dignified ;  and,  to  make  our  dignity  com-  CHAPTER 
plete,  we  must  give  a  high  title,  an  embroidered  robe,  a  . 
princely  equipage,  and,  finally,  a  crown  and  hereditary  1789 
succession  !  Let  us  establish  tranquillity  and  good  or- 
der at  home,  and  wealth,  strength,  and  national  dignity 
will  be  the  infallible  result.  The  aggregate  of  dignity 
will  be  the  same,  whether  divided  among  all  or  centered 
in  one.  And  whom,  sir,  do  we  expect  to  gratify  ?  Is 
it  the  man  now  president  ?  He  has  a  real  dignity  of 
character,  and  is  above  such  little  vanities.  If  not  for 
his  gratification,  for  whose,  then,  are  we  to  do  this  ? 
Where  is  the  man  among  us  who  has  the  presumption 
and  vanity  to  expect  it  ?  Who  is  it  that  shall  say,  'For 
my  aggrandizement  three  millions  of  people  entered  into 
a  calamitous  war,  they  persevered  in  it  for  eight  long 
years,  they  sacrificed  their  property,  they  spilled  their 
blood,  they  rendered  thousands  of  families  wretched  by 
the  loss  of  their  only  protectors  and  means  of  support  ?' 
This  spirit  of  imitation,  this  spirit  of  apishness,  will  be 
the  ruin  of  our  country  ;  and,  instead  of  giving  us  dig- 
nity in  the  eyes  of  foreigners,  will  only  expose  us  to  be 
laughed  at."  The  person  at  whom  Tucker  aimed,  in  the 
closing  part  of  his  remarks,  was  no  doubt  the  vice-presi- 
dent, who  was  understood  to  be  decidedly  in  favor  of 
titles,  and  who  had  adopted  in  his  equipage  and  manner 
of  living  a  style  of  distinction  at  which  many,  especially 
of  the  Southern  members,  took  marked  offense. 

Though  opposed  to  titles,  Madison  did  not  think  them 
so  full  of  danger  as  some  gentlemen  feared.  Titles  did 
not  confer  power,  and  he  did  not  conceive  that  all  the 
titles  in  Europe  or  Asia  could  make  the  office  of  presi- 
dent dangerous  to  the  liberties  of  America.  He  objected 
to  them  simply  because  they  were  not  reconcilable  with 
the  nature  of  our  government  or  the  genius  of  the  peo- 


62  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  pie,  and,  even  'if  proper  in  themselves,  were  not  expedient 
'        at  the  present  time.      But,  though  opposed  to  the  object 
1789.  in  view,  he  still  thought  that  proper  respect  and  atten- 
tion to  the  Senate  required  the  House  to  join  in  the  new 
committee  proposed. 

CJymer  ''thought  there  was  little  occasion  to  give  any 
title  either  to  the  president  or  vice-president ;  but  he 
could  not  agree  with  those  who  spoke  of  titles  as  un- 
popular. He  was  led  to  think  otherwise,  from  the  vast 
number  of  '  honorables'  we  have  in  America.  As  soon 
as  a  man  is  selected  for  the  public  service,  his  fellow- 
citizens,  with  a  liberal  hand,  shower  down  titles  upon 
him.  He  believed  there  were  more  *  honorable  esquires' 
in  the  United  States  than  in  all  the  world  besides.  He 
hoped  the  example  of  the  House  might  extinguish  this 
predilection  in  favor  of  titles."  There  were,  however, 
plain  distinctions,  which  Clymer  omitted  to  note,  between 
titles  spontaneously  conferred  by  a  man's  political  friends 
and  those  the  right  to  which  might  be  established  by  law; 
also  between  titles  so  commonly  given  as  to  be  within 
every  body's  reach,  and  titles  limited  to  one  or  a  few 
As  a  mere  spontaneous  compliment,  which  every  man 
might  expect  in  his  turn,  titles  excited  little  jealousy, 
however  they  might  conflict  with  the  ultra-Republican 
theory.  But  the  case  seemed  to  be  different  when  it  was 
proposed  to  give  them  a  legal  or  semi-legal  character. 

After  some  further  discussion,  the  House  appointed  a 
committee  of  conference,  to  which  step  the  Senate  re- 
sponded ;  but  no  report  was  ever  made.  The  House,  in 
fact,  had  already  carried  their  views  into  practice  by  ad- 
dressing Washington  in  reply  to  his  speech  simply  as 
"  President  of  the  United  States  ;"  an  example  which 
the  Senate,  though  not  without  some  reluctance  and  a 
sort  of  protest,  saw  fit  to  follow.  The  answer  of  the 


PRESIDENTIAL    ETIQUETTE.  fig 

House  was  delivered  to  Washington  in  a  lobby  or  audi-  CHAPTEH 
ence    chamber    adjoining  the  Representatives'   Hall  by  ______ 

the  hand  of  the  speaker,  attended  by  the  members.     The  1789 
Senate,  for  the  purpose  of  delivering  their  answer,  wait- 
ed upon  the  president  at  his  own  house — a  custom  after- 
ward adopted  by  the  representatives,  who,  for  the  first 
twelve  years  of  the  Federal  Government,  were  accustom- 
ed  to  go  in  procession  for  that  purpose,  with  the  sergeant 
at-arms  at  their  head,  bearing  the  mace. 

As  the  Senate  was  to  act  in  certain  cases  as  the 
president's  executive  council,  it  became  necessary  to 
fix  the  forms  and  methods  of  communication.  In  the 
discussion  of  treaties  and  other  matters  relating  to  ex- 
ternal relations,  the  course  first  agreed  to  was,  that  the 
president  should  be  present  in  person  ;  but,  on  trial,  this 
method  was  found  to  be  attended  with  various  embar- 
rassments, and  was  speedily  abandoned.  Somewhat 
against  the  inclination  of  the  Senate,  Washington  at 
once  adopted  the  practice  of  making  all  nominations  to 
office  by  written  message  ;  after  its  adoption  in  the  case 
of  treaties  also,  this  became  the  only  method  of  official 
communication  between  the  executive  and  the  Senate. 

In  regulating  his  intercourse  with  the  public  at  large, 
Washington  was  anxious  to  adopt  such  a  system  as, 
without  overstepping  the  limits  of  republican  simplicity, 
might  best  maintain  the  dignity  of  the  office,  and  secure 
to  the  president  that  command  of  his  time  essential  to 
the  proper  discharge  of  his  duties.  Though  very  much 
criticised  at  the  moment,  the  customs  which  he  intro- 
duced have  ever  since  regulated  the  etiquette  of  the  presi- 
dent's household.  He  laid  it  down  as  a  rule  to  return 
no  visits.  To  secure  himself  from  being  overrun  by  mis- 
cellaneous callors,  certain  fixed  days  were  appointed  for 
presidential  levees  •  and,  to  avoid  the  embarrassments  to 


54  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  which   the  presidents  of  Congress  had  subjected  them- 

selves  by  keeping  a  sort  of  open  table — so  that  every 

1789  caller  at  last  began  to  consider  himself  entitled  to  be  in- 
vited— no  dinner  invitations -were  given  except  to  official 
characters  and  strangers  of  distinction.  The  arrange- 
ment of  the  ceremonial  connected  with  the  president,  at 
the  levees  and  elsewhere,  appears  to  have  been  left  to 
Humphreys  of  Connecticut,  who  had  been  formerly  an 
aid-de-camp  to  Washington,  and,  more  recently,  secre- 
tary of  legation  at  Paris,  whence  he  had  returned  with 
a  good  many  foreign  airs  and  notions.  Some  seemingly 
very  trifling  matters,  such  as  placing  Washington  and 
his  wife  on  an  elevated  seat  at  a  public  ball,  which  the 
dancers,  before  commencing,  approached  with  a  low  obei- 
sance, became,  in  the  party  struggles  of  after  years, 
things  of  no  little  importance,  being  confidently  relied 
upon  as  palpable  and  convincing  proofs  of  the  monarchical 
tendencies  of  the  Federal  party. 

At  an  early  day,  the  senators,  in  conformity  to  a  pro- 
vision in  the  Constitution  to  that  effect,  divided  them- 
selves into  three  classes,  to  terminate  their  service  in  two, 
four,  and  six  years  respectively.  This  matter  was  settled 
by  lot,  and  the  absent  senators,  as  they  arrived,  were  ar- 
ranged in  the  same  way,  in  one  or  another  of  the  three 
classes.  The  first  act  presented  to  the  president  for  his 
signature  was  one  to  regulate  the  administration  of  the 
oaths  imposed  by  the  Constitution.  The  oath  of  the 
members  of  the  House  had,  however,  been  previously 
fixed  by  resolution,  and  administered  by  the  Chief  Justice 
of  the  State  of  New  York.  The  first  more  important 
business  which  engrossed  the  attention  of  Congress  was, 
in  the  Senate,  the  framing  of  a  Judiciary  Act,  and  in 
the  House,  the  provision  of  a  revenue  by  imposing  du 
ties  on  imports, 


REVENUE  SYSTEM— DUTIES  ON  IMPORTS.    g£ 

Indeed,  the  House  had  not  waited  for  the  inauguration  CHAPTER 

of  the  president  to  enter  upon  this  all-important  subject 

of  revenue.  Within  two  days  after  the  votes  for  presi-  1789. 
dent  had  been  counted,  and  while  the  method  of  proceed-  APril  8 
ing  was  but  yet  immature,  this  subject  had  been  brought 
forward  by  Madison,  to  whom  the  leadership  seemed  to 
be  tacitly  conceded,  in  the  first  committee  of  the  whole 
ori  the  state  of  the  Union  into  which  the  House  had  re- 
solved itself.  For  the  purpose  of  an  immediate  supply 
to  the  treasury,  which  was  almost  totally  empty,  and 
upon  which  there  were  so  many  claims,  Madison  sug- 
gested the  adoption  of  a  temporary  system  of  imposts,  to 
be  based  on  that  proposed  by  the  Continental  Congress, 
and  to  which  all  the  states  except  New  York  had  given 
their  assent.  With  this  view,  he  introduced  a  resolution  •> 
enumerating  rum  and  other  spirituous  liquors,  wines,  tea, 
coffee,  sugar,  molasses,  and  pepper,  as  subjects  for  spe- 
cific duties,  the  amount  being  left  blank  ;  proposing  also 
a  blank  ad  valorem  duty  upon  all  other  articles  import- 
ed, and  a  tonnage  duty  on  all  vessels,  with  a  discrim- 
ination in  favor  of  vessels  owned  wholly  in  the  United 
States,  and  an  additional  discrimination  between  foreign 
vessels,  favorable  to  those  belonging  to  countries  having 
commercial  treaties  with  the  United  States. 

The  statements  of  the  various  speakers  in  the  debate 
that  followed  throw  no  little  light  upon  the  position  of 
American  industry  at  that  time,  especially  in  what  re- 
lates to  trade  and  manufactures  ;  and  the  tariff  which 
grew  out  of  it,  though  greatly  added  to  and  variously 
modified  since,  still  lies  at  the  bottom  of  our  existing 
revenue  system.  In  the  course  of  the  debate  were  fully 
developed  the  whole  length  and  breadth  of  the  various 
tariff  controversies  which  have  formed  so  leading  a  topic 
in  our  more  recent  politics,  except,  indeed,  the  single  point 
TV.— E 


f56  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES 

CHAPTER  of  the  want  of  power  in  the  federal  government  tc  Jay 
'•  duties  for  protection,  an  idea  which  seems  not  yet  to  have 
1789.  been  broached.  Another  question  of  great  subsequent 
importance  related  to  the  ability  of  the  United  States  to 
coerce  foreign  nations  by  means  of  commercial  restric- 
tions, and  the  policy  of  resorting  to  that  means.  In 
Madison's  opinions  upon  this  subject,  so  warmly  urged, 
we  may  discover  the  origin  of  that  system  of  policy  aft- 
erward taken  up  by  Jefferson,  pertinaciously  carried  out 
twenty  years  afterward  in  the  embargo  and  non-inter- 
course, and  ending  at  last,  as  its  opponents  had  foretold, 
in  a  war  with  Great  Britain.  Instead,  therefore,  of  be- 
ing a  mere  dry  discussion  as  to  what  imports  should  be 
taxed  and  how  much,  this  debate,  by  exhibiting  the  va- 
rious ideas  which  prevailed,  is  a  great  help  toward  un- 
derstanding many  interesting  points  of  our  subsequent 
history. 

Fitzsimmons  opposed  the  idea  of  mere  temporary  du- 
ties. It  were  better  to  agree  at  once  on  a  system  ad- 
equate in  some  degree  to  the  present  situation  of  the 
country,  as  regarded  agriculture,  manufactures,  and  com- 
meJrce.  He  proposed  to  increase  the  list  of  articles  upon 
which  specific  duties  were  to  be  imposed,  partly  with  a 
view  to  the  imposition  of  "  sumptuary  restrictions"  upon 
articles  of  luxury,  but  principally  with  the  design  "to 
encourage  the  productions  of  our  country,  and  to  pro- 
tect our  infant  manufactures."  With  the .  first  object 
in  view,  he  proposed  to  add  as  subjects  for  specific  duties 
spices  and  fruits,  and,  with  a  view  to  domestic  protection, 
beer,  ale,  porter,  cider,  beef,  pork,  butter,  cheese,  candles, 
soap,  cables,  cordage,  leather,  hats,  slit  and  rolled  iron, 
iron  castings,  nails,  unwrought  steel,  paper,  cabinet- ware, 
and  carriages.  Several  petitions  had  already  been  pre- 
sented from  the  mechanics,  manufacturers,  and  ship- 


REVENUE  SYSTEM— DUTIES  ON  IMPORTS.    gy 

vvrights  of  the  principal  towns,  praying  for  protection  CHAPTER 

against  foreign  competition,  and  others  continued  to  come L 

in  during  the  session.  1789. 

"  I  own  myself,"  said  Madison,  in  relation  to  this  topic, 
"  the  friend  of  a  very  free  system  of  commerce.  If  in- 
dustry and  labor  are  left  to  take  their  own  course,  they 
will  generally  be  directed  to  those  objects  which  are  most 
productive,  and  that  in  a  manner  more  certain  and  direct 
than  the  wisdom  of  the  most  enlightened  legislature  could 
point  out ;  nor  do  I  believe  that  the  national  interest  is. 
more  promoted  by  such  legislative  directions  than  the 
interest  of  the  individuals  concerned.  Yet  I  concede  that 
exceptions  exist  to  this  general  rule  important  in  them- 
selves, and  claiming  the  particular  attention  of  this  com- 
mittee. If  America  were  to  leave  her  ports  perfectly 
free,  and  to  make  no  discrimination  between  vessels  owned 
by  citizens  and  those  owned  by  foreigners,  while  other 
nations  make  such  discrimination,  such  a  policy  would 
go  to  exclude  American  shipping  from  foreign  ports,  and 
we  should  be  materially  affected  in  one  of  our  most  im- 
portant interests. 

"  Duties  laid  on  imported  articles  may  have  an  effect 
which  comes  within  the  idea  of  national  prudence.  The 
states  most  advanced  in  population,  and  ripe  for  manu- 
factures, ought  to  have  their  particular  interests  attended 
to,  at  least  in  some  degree.  Some  establishments  have 
grown  up  under  the  power  which  those  states  had  of  reg- 
ulating trade,  which  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  perish  in 
consequence  of  the  recent  alteration.  It  would  be  cruel 
to  neglect  them  and  to  divert  their  industry  to  other 
channels,  since  it  is  not  possible  for  the  hand  of  man  to 
change  from  one  employment  to  another  without  loss. 

"  There  is  another  exception  upon  which  great  stress 
is  laid  by  some  well-informed  men,  and  with  great  plaus- 


$$  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

CHAPTER  ibility.      It  is  said  that  every  nation  should  have  within 

.      '        itself  the  means  of  defense,  independent  of  foreign  sup- 

1739.  plies  ;  that,  in  whatever  relates  to  the  operations  of  war, 

no  state  ought  to  depend  upon  a  precarious  supply  from 

other  parts  of  the  world.      There  may  be  some  truth  in 

this,  and  therefore  it  is  proper  for  legislative  attention ; 

though  I  am  well  persuaded  that  the  reasoning  on  this 

subject  has  been  carried  too  far. 

"  The  impost  on  trade  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
revenue  may  be  considered  as  another  exception.  So  far 
as  revenue  may  be  more  conveniently  and  certainly  ob- 
tained by  this  than  by  any  other  method,  I  think  sound 
policy  dictates  to  use  it." 

He  did  not  object  to  Fitzsimmons's  list.  "  Some  of 
the  propositions  may  be  productive  of  revenue,  and  some 
may  protect  our  domestic  manufactures,  though  the  lat- 
ter subject,  which  involves  some  intricate  questions,  ought 
not  to  be  too  confusedly  blended  with  the  former."  Fitz- 
simmons's motion  was  agreed  to,  and,  on  Goodhue's  pro- 
posal, anchors,  wool-cards,  and  tin- ware  were  added  to 
the  list  as  articles  the  manufacture  of  which  deserved 
protection. 

The  next  step  was  to  fill  the  blanks.  Sherman  pro- 
posed to  charge  rum  with  a  duty  of  fifteen  cents  the  gal- 
lon, adding,  for  the  information  of  the  House,  that  "  he 
used  the  word  cent  because  it  was  a  denomination  of 
national  coin  fixed  by  the  late  Congress,  ten  of  which 
made  a  dime,  and  ten  dimes  one  dollar."  Lawrence 
urged  the  danger  of  smuggling  if  the  duty  were  laid  too 
high,  and  proposed  to  fix  it  at  twelve  cents  per  gallon. 
It  was  answered,  that  if  a  high  duty  were  to  be  imposed 
on  any  article,  this  was  the  one.  The  consumption  was 
so  great  that  a  large  revenue  might  be  expected  from  it ; 
and  even  should  the  duty  operate  to  lessen  the  consump- 


REVENUE  SYSTEM— DUTIES  ON  IMPORTS.    (;  9 

tion,  the  probability  of  which  was  suggested  as  a  reason  CHAPIER 

for  fixing  the  duty  at  a  lower  rate,   that  result,   in   a 

moral  point  of  view,  was  much  to  be  desired.  1789 

The  great  evils  attending  the  free  use  of  ardent  spirits 
had  already  attracted  public  attention.  A  tract  on  this 
subject,  by  Dr.  Rush,  had  lately  been  republished  in  al- 
most all  the  American  papers,  and  had  made  a  strong 
impression  on  the  public  mind.  At  the  federal  festival 
at  Philadelphia,  of  which  an  account  is  given  at  the  com- 
mencement of  this  chapter,  ardent  spirits  had  been  ex- 
cluded, American  beer  and  cider  being  the  only  liquors 
used.  "  If  we  can  judge,"  said  Madison,  "  from  what 
we  hear  and  see,  it  is  the  sense  of  the  American  people 
that  a  duty  weighty  indeed  should  be  imposed  on  this 
article."  After  a  good  deal  of  discussion,  the  proposed 
duty  of  fifteen  cents  per  gallon  was  limited  to  rum  of  the 
highest  proof,  other  descriptions  to  be  charged  twelve  cents. 

The  Southern  members  favored  a  high  duty  on  rum 
with  a  view  to  revenue,  and  the  Eastern  members  with  a 
view  to  the  protection  of  the  New  England  manufacture  ; 
but  they  separated  on  the  question  of  the  rate  of  duty  on 
molasses,  the  New  England  members  uniting  with  Law- 
rence, who  acted  as  the  champion  of  the  mercantile  inter- 
ests of  the  city  of  New  York,  in  favor  of  a  low  duty.  Madi- 
son suggested  that  a  high  duty  on  molasses  would  operate 
as  a  tax  on  the  rum  distilled  from  it.  thus  dispensing 
with  the  expensive  and  unpopular  machinery  which  the 
collection  of  such  a  tax  by  way  of  excise  would  require. 
To  this  it  was  answered  that  in  Massachusetts,  which 
imported  more  molasses  than  all  the  other  states  together, 
it  was  used  not  merely  for  distillation,  but  to  a  great 
extent  as  a  substitute  for  sugar.  A  high  tax  upon  such 
a  necessary  of  life  would  be  very  oppressive.  Goodhue 
put  the  committee  in  mind  of  the  British  Molasses  Aot> 


70  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  which  had  done  so  much  to  stir  up  discontent  and  to 
"  hasten  the  Revolution.  On  this  unpromising  topic  the 
1789.  brilliant  eloquence  of  Ames  was  displayed  for  the  first 
time.  Following  the  old  colonial  line  of  argument  against 
the  British  Molasses  Act,  he  insisted  that  so  heavy  a 
duty  tended  to  the  ruin  of  the  New  England  fisheries 
and  commerce  ;  but  these  arguments  were  parried  by  the 
suggestion  that  the  New  England  distillers  would  now 
have  open  to  them  the  market  of  the  Union,  freed  from 
the  state  imposts  hitherto  imposed,  and  protected  by  the 
duty  on  foreign  rum.  If,  however,  this  tax  bore  hard 
upon  Massachusetts,  other  taxes  on  the  list  wrould  beai 
hard  on  other  states.  After  a  great  deal  of  dbcussion, 
the  opposers  of  a  high  duty  only  so  far  prevailed  as  to 
have  the  blank  filled  with  six  cents,  which  they  esteem- 
ed, however,  to  be  very  exorbitant. 

On  motion  of  Madison,  eight  cents  a  gallon  on  beer 
was  agreed  to,  for  the  express  purpose  of  encouraging 
the  domestic  manufacture.  A  duty  on  candles  was 
adopted  on  the  same  ground.  An  objection  was  taken 
by  some  Southern  members  to  any  duty  on  steel,  as  op- 
pressive to  agriculture,  to  which  Clymer  and  Fitzsirn- 
mons  replied  that  the  manufacture  of  steel  was  already 
commenced  with  good  success  in  Pennsylvania^  and  that 
a  moderate  protective  duty  would  lead  to  a  great  in- 
crease of  production.  Five  shillings  on  the  hundred 
weight,  all  they  asked  for,  would  affect  the  agricultural 
interest  but  very  slightly,  even  supposing  the  duty  to  be 
paid  on  all  that  was  used.  It  might  be  esteemed  a  par- 
tial tax,  but  was  not  that  objection  overbalanced  by  the 
establishment  of  so  important  a  manufacture  ?  The 
duty  was  finally  fixed  at  fifty-six  cents  per  hundred. 

The  duty  on  cordage  being  under  consideration,  Madi- 
son questioned  the  policy  of  imposing  duties  on  article* 


REVENUE  SYSTEM— DUTIES  ON  IMPORTS.    7} 

which  entered  into  ship-building.      If  a  duty  on  cordage  CHAPTEP 
were  necessary  for  the  purpose  of  encouraging  the  manu-  , 

facture  and  making  us  independent  as  to  that  article,  it  1789 
was  equally  necessary  to  encourage  the  production  of 
hemp,  and  he  moved  to  add  that  to  the  list.  Some  mem- 
bers from  the  maritime  states  denied  that  hemp  could  be 
raised  in  the  country ;  upon  which  Scott,  who  came  from 
the  district  about  Pittsburg,  informed  the  committee  that 
the  lands  on  the  Ohio  were  well  calculated  for  this  arti- 
cle, which  also  had  the  advantage  of  being  better  able 
to  bear  the  expense  of  transportation  than  any  thing  else, 
even  tobacco.  He  believed  that,  with  the  encouragement 
now  asked  for,  large  quantities  might  speedily  be  sup- 
plied to  the  Philadelphia  market.  If  there  were  no  con- 
venient route  across  the  mountains  and  down  the  Po- 
tomac, the  Mississippi  would  furnish  an  outlet.  "We 
are  no  strangers  to  its  navigation,"  said  Scott,  "  nor  do 
we  find  it  difficult  to  construct  boats  of  great  dimensions 
capable  of  floating  down  many  tons." 

Fitzsimmons  and  Hartley,  strong  sticklers  for  protec- 
tion on  all  manufactured  articles,  opposed,  however,  this 
duty  on  hemp.  The  domestic  supply  was  notoriously 
very  small,  and  Fitzsimmons  thought  that  if  the  present 
price  did  not  stimulate  the  farmer  to  produce  it,  nothing 
would.  Several  of  the  Southern  members,  on  the  other 
hand,  who  had  opposed  all  protective  duties  on  manufac- 
tured articles,  supported  the  duty  on  hemp  as  an  en- 
couragement to  agriculture.  Burke  stated  that,  on  ac- 
count of  their  diminished  price,  rice  and  indigo,  the  sta- 
ple products  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  were  hardly 
worth  cultivating.  The  lands  there  were  well  adapted 
to  the  growth  of  hemp,  and  he  did  not  doubt  that  its 
cultivation  would  be  attended  to.  Cotton  was  likewise 
in  contemplation,  and,  if  good  seed  could  be  procured, 


72  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  he  hoped  it  would  succeed.  Scott's  remarks  about  the, 
'  navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  and  Burke's  about  cotton. 
1789.  are  significant  landmarks  of  the  commercial  and  agri- 
cultural advancement  made  by  the  United  States  within 
two  generations.  Patridge,  of  Massachusetts,  admitted 
the  propriety  of  encouraging  agriculture,  but  not  at  the 
expense  of  the  ship-builders.  The  duty  ought  not  to 
exceed  five  per  cent. ;  forty  cents  per  hundred  was  about 
equal  to  that,  and  he  moved  to  fill  the  blank  with  that 
sum.  The  State  of  Massachusetts  had  imposed  a  duty 
of  one  per  cent,  only  on  hemp  imported,  which  had  been 
applied  to  pay  a  bounty  of  a  dollar  per  hundred  on  all 
hemp  raised  within  the  state.  Several  Southern  mem- 
bers advocated  a  duty  of  seventy-five  cents  per  hundred ; 
but  Madison  thought  that  too  high.  He  by  no  means 
approved  of  measures  injurious  to  ship-building,  and  was 
even  doubtful  if  it  might  not  have  been  as  well  to  have 
left  out  cordage.  He  moved  fifty  cents  per  hundred, 
which  was  agreed  to. 

The  duty  on  spikes,  nails,  tacks,  and  brads  was  strong- 
ly opposed  by  several  Southern  members,  as  a  duty,  in 
fact,  on  the  improvement  of  estates.  Madison  suggested 
that  it  was  a  burden,  also,  upon  ship-building.  His  col- 
league, Bland,  thought  it  an  unequal  tax,  burdening  the 
Southern  States,  but  not  felt  at  the  North,  where  enough 
of  these  articles  was  made  for  domestic  consumption. 
Goodhue  replied,  that  great  quantities  were  made  for 
exportation  in  Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania,  and  he 
believed  in  other  states ;  enough  might  soon  be  made  to 
supply  all  North  America.  "  This  manufacture,"  said 
Ames,  "  with  very  little  encouragement,  has  grown  up 
remarkably.  It  has  become  common  for  the  country 
people  in  Massachusetts  to  erect  small  forges  in  theii 
chimney-corners,  and  in  winter,  and  on  evenings  whev 


REVENUE  SYSTEM— DUTIES  ON  IMPORTS     73 

litt.e  other  work  can  be  done,  great  quantities  of  nails  CHAPTKB 
are  made,   even   by  children.      These  people  take  the  - 

rod-iron  of  the  merchant  and  return  him  the  nails,  and,  1789. 
in  consequence  of  this  easy  mode  of  barter,  the  manu- 
facture is  prodigiously  great.  These  advantages  are 
not  exclusively  in  the  hands  of  the  people  of  Massachu- 
setts. The  business  might  be  prosecuted  in  a  similar 
manner  in  every  state  exerting  equal  industry."  From 
this  account  of  the  facility  and  economy  of  the  manu- 
facture of  nails,  Tucker  thought  it  evident  that  they 
stood  in  no  need  of  any  prohibition.  Ames,  in  reply, 
suggested  a  new  view  of  the  case,  applicable  not  to  nails 
only,  but  to  all  articles  manufactured  at  the  North. 
"  The  commerce  of  America,  particularly  of  the  south. 
ern  parts,  had,  by  the  force  of  habit  and  English  con- 
nections, been  setting  strongly  toward  Great  Britain, 
and  it  required  the  aid  of  the  general  government  to  di- 
vert it  to  a  more  natural  course.  Good  policy  and 
sound  wisdom  demonstrated  the  propriety  of  an  inter- 
change of  products  between  the  different  states  of  the 
Union.  To  bring  about  this  political  good  some  force 
was  necessary.  Laying  a  small  duty  on  foreign  manu- 
factures might,  from  motives  of  interest  as  well  as  in- 
clination, induce  our  fellow-citizens  to  barter  with  or 
buy  of  each  other  what  they  had  long  been  accustomed 
to  take  from  strangers.  From  the  different  situation  of 
the  manufacturers  in  Europe  and  America,  encourage- 
ment was  necessary.  In  Europe,  the  artisan  is  driven 
to  labor  for  his  bread  ;  stern  necessity,  with  her  iron 
rod,  compels  his  exertion.  In  America,  invitation  and 
encouragement  are  needed  ;  without  them  the  infant 
manufacture  droops,  and  those  who  might  be  employed 
in  it  seek,  with  success,  a  competency  from  our  cheap 
and  fertile  soil." 


74  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Fitzsimmons  thought  the  American  manufacturers 
would  have  little  to  apprehend  even  if  the  articles  in 
1789.  question  were  left  without  a  special  duty.  Neither 
spikes  nor  nails  for  ship-building  were  imported;  they 
were  generally  large  and  heavy,  and  were  made  in  the 
country  according  to  the  builder's  order.  Before  the 
Revolution  the  people  in  America  were  not  permitted  tc 
erect  slitting-mills ;  they  now  had  several,  and  were  in- 
dependent of  all  the  world  for  the  materials  necessary  to 
carry  on  the  business  of  nail-making.  The  duty  would 
'  draw  but  little  money  into  the  treasury,  nor  would  the 
omitting  it  do  any  material  injury.  He  was  willing, 
however,  to  allow  a  small  one  out  of  conformity  to  the 
policy  of  protective  duties.  Tacks  and  brads  were 
struck  out ;  spikes  and  nails  were  taxed  one  cent  per 
pound.  The.  household  manufacture  of  nails  described 
in  this  debate  has  long  since  been  wholly  superseded  by 
machinery. 

The  duty  on  salt  gave  rise  to  a  lively  debate — fore- 
runner of  a  great  many  subsequent  congressional  discus- 
sions on  the  same  fruitful  topic.  Lawrence  proposed  six 
cents  per  bushel.  This  was  vehemently  opposed  by  sev- 
eral members  from  the  South  and  West,  who  urged  that 
great  quantities  of  salt  were  consumed  by  cattle — the 
principal  article  which  the  people  in  the  back  settlements 
raised  for  market.  The  cost  of  transportation  already 
made  the  price  excessively  high,  and  to  increase  it  by 
taxation  would  produce  discontents  which  might  prove 
dangerous.  It  was  argued,  on  the  other  side,  that  salt, 
from  its  universal  consumption,  was  one  of  the  articles 
most  productive  in  revenue ;  that  the  moderate  duty  pro- 
posed could  not  greatly  enhance  its  price ;  and  that, 
even  allowing  a  greater  proportional  consumption  of  salt 
by  the  frontier  inhabitants,  their  less  consumption  of 


REVENUE  SYSTEM— DUTIES  ON  IMPORTS.    75 

other  taxed  articles  would  more  than  indemnify  them  for  CHAPTEF 
any  excess  of  taxation  on  this.      The  duty  of  six  cents 
was  agreed  to ;   a  drawback  to  be  allowed  on  salted  pro-  1789. 
visions  and  fish  exported. 

A  duty  of  six  cents  per  pound,  intended  to  be  pro- 
hibitory, was  agreed  to  on  manufactured  tobacco,  that  is, 
tobacco  prepared  for  chewing.  On  motion  of  Carroll 
of  Maryland,  who  stated  that  a  manufactory  of  glass  had 
been  successfully  begun  in  his  state,  a  duty  of  ten  per 
cent,  ad  valorem  was  imposed  on  window  and  other 
glass,  except  black  quart  bottles.  On  Clymer's  motion, 
a  duty  of  seven  and  a  half  per  cent,  was  agreed  to  on 
paper,  pasteboard,  and  blank  books.  Clymer  stated  that 
the  paper-mills  of  Pennsylvania  produced  annually  seven- 
ty thousand  reams  of  various  kinds  of  paper,  which  were 
sold  as  cheap  as  they  could  be  imported.  Already  there 
were  fifty-three  paper-mills  within  the  range  of  the  Phil- 
adelphia market.  A  duty  of  fifty  cents  per  dozen  was 
also  agreed  to  on  wool-cards,  which,  according  to  the 
statements  of  Ames  and  Clymer,  were  manufactured  in 
Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania  as  good  and  cheap  as 
those  imported. 

With  respect  to  teas,  it  was  proposed  to  discriminate 
between  those  imported  from  India  and  China  in  Ameri- 
can vessels,  and  those  imported  in  foreign  vessels,  or  from 
other  countries  than  India  and  China.  The  object  was 
to  encourage  the  trade  with  the  East  Indies,  lately  opened 
by  some  enterprising  American  merchants,  and  already 
prosecuted  with  good  success.  More  than  forty  vessels 
from  Massachusetts  were  already  employed  in  this  trade, 
principally  from  the  port  of  Salem,  and  a  few  others 
from  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  Madison  thought 
the  trade  not  worthy  of  encouragement,  since  the  articles 
imported  were  chiefly  luxurier  not  paid  for  by  the  ex- 


76  HISTORY    OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  port  of  our  own  products,  but  in  specie,  while  long  voy- 

ages  like  those  to  India  were  unfriendly  to  the  increase 

1789.  of  commerce.  To  this  it  was  replied  by  Goodhue  and 
Boudinot  that  considerable  quantities  of  ginseng  (a  plant 
which  the  Chinese  hold  in  great  esteem  for  its  medicinal 
qualities,  and  which  a  French  Jesuit  missionary  in  Cana- 
da had  found  growing  in  the  North  American  woods), 
also  lumber  and  provisions,  were  shipped  direct  to  China, 
while  other  articles,  such  as  beef,  pork,  flour,  and  wheat, 
were  disposed  of  at  ports  on  this  side  of  China,  in  order 
to  procure  cargoes  suitable  for  that  market ;  so  that  the 
imports  from  China  were  in  fact  paid  for,  in  a  great 
measure,  by  the  export  of  domestic  produce.  After  these 
explanations  the  discriminating  duty  was  agreed  to. 

At  the  suggestion  of  Bland  and  Parker,  who  stated 
that  coal-mines  had  been  opened  in  Virginia  capable  of 
supplying  the  whole  of  the  United  States,  a  duty  of  three 
cents  per  bushel  was  imposed  on  imported  coal. 

All  the  blanks  having  been  filled,  Fitzsimmons  pro- 
posed to  allow  a  drawback  on  all  New  England  rum  ex- 
ported equivalent  to  the  duty  on  the  molasses  from  which 
it  was  made.  This  was  opposed  by  Madison  as  opening 
a  door  to  frauds.  He  thought  the  advantage  derived  by 
the  distillers  from  a  free  exportation  to  the  several  states 
of  the  Union  quite  compensation  enough  for  the  duty  on 
molasses.  This  motion  was  defeated  for  the  present,  but 
a  proposition  was  agreed  to  for  allowing  a  drawback  of 
duties  on  all  foreign  articles  re-exported. 

Aprils..  The  question  of  the  tariff  being  thus  disposed  of,  that 
of  duties  on  tonnage  was  next  taken  up.  On  this  subject 
two  important  questions  arose.  What  should  be  the 
amount  of  discrimination  in  favor  of  American  vessels  ? 
And,  as  between  foreign  ships,  should  any  discrimination 
be  made  in  favor  of  those  nations  having  commercial 


REVENUE  SYSTEM— TONNAGE  DUTIES.      77 

treaties  with  the  United  States  ?  The  representatives  CHAPTER 
of  Massachusetts,  the  principal  ship- owning  state,  advo-  ' 
cated  a  very  decided  discrimination  in  favor  of  American  1789. 
shipping.  The  duty  on  American  vessels  having  been 
fixed  at  six  cents  per  ton,  Goodhue  proposed  sixty  cents 
as  the  lowest  duty  on  foreign  vessels.  This  he  estima- 
ted as  amounting  to  five  per  cent,  on  the  freight,  which 
he  insisted  was  no  more  than  a  fair  counterbalance  to 
the  additional  charges  to  which  American  vessels  were 
subjected  in  foreign  ports.  The  representatives  of  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania,  states  less  amply 
provided  with  vessels  of  their  own,  and  dependent  to  a 
considerable  extent  on  foreign  shipping,  thought  that 
thirty  cents  per  ton  would  be  discrimination  enough. 
The  Southern  members,  having  hardly  any  ships,  wished 
to  reduce  the  duty  to  twenty  cents.  They  inclined  to 
regard  the  proposed  discrimination  as  in  effect  no  more 
than  a  tax  on  freight,  and  ultimately  on  produce,  for  the 
special  benefit  of  the  New  England  ship-owners. 

Fitzsirnmons  estimated  the  tonnage  employed  in  the 
conveyance  of  American  products  at  about  600,000  tons, 
one  third  of  which  was  owned  by  foreigners ;  and  he 
doubted  very  much  whether  any  restrictions  would  pro- 
duce, within  a  very  short  period,  the  additional  tonnage 
necessary  to  supply  the  whole  American  trade.  The 
merchants  could  not  invest  their  capital  in  ships  without 
withdrawing  it  from  other  more  essential  employments. 
He  inclined  to  restrict  the  duty  on  vessels  belonging  to 
nations  having  treaties  with  us  to  one  third  of  a  dollar, 
reserving  the  higher  rate  for  those  not  having  treaties. 

This  raised  the  preliminary  question,  whether  any 
distinction  should  be  made  at  all  as  to  foreign  nations, 
and  if  so,  to  what  extent?  The  only  nations  having 
treaties  of  commerce  with  the  United  States  vrere  France, 


7$  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  Holland,  Sweden,  and  Prussia,  while  by  far  the  larger 
'  part  of  the  foreign  tonnage  employed  in  the  American 
1789.  trade  was  British.  Some  doubts  being  thrown  out  as 
to  the  policy  of  any  such  discrimination,  Madison  entered 
with  zeal  into  a  defense  of  it.  From  long  possession, 
old  habits,  similarity  of  laws  and  manners,  identity  of 
language,  and  other  adventitious  circumstances,  Great 
Britain  had,  in  his  opinion,  acquired  an  undue  and  un- 
natural proportion  of  our  trade.  He  dwelt  with  empha- 
sis upon  the  exclusion  of  American  vessels  from  the  Brit- 
ish ports  in  the  West  Indies,  and  the  other  disadvantages 
to  which  American  ships  were  subjected  under  the  British 
navigation  laws.  The  public  sentiment  in  favor  of  dis- 
crimination was  decisive.  That  policy  had  been  adopted, 
while  they  possessed  the  power  of  legislating  on  the  sub- 
ject, by  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  Pennsylvania.  It  might 
obtain  from  France  relaxations  in  favor  of  American 
commerce,  which  the  minister  at  that  court  had  been 
long  soliciting,  and  of  which  there  were  some  favorable 
prospects.  It  would  be  good  policy  to  hold  out  an  in- 
ducement to  commercial  treaties  by  giving  our  allies  an 
advantage. 

Lawrence  regarded  the  idea  as  unfounded  that  there 
was  any  thing  unnatural  or  adventitious  in  the  prepon- 
derating share  of  the  British  in  our  commerce.  Thai 
was  not  a  point  for  the  government  to  settle.  If  Amer- 
ican  merchants  found  it  for  their  interest  or  convenience 
to  form  connections  with  the  subjects  of  one  foreign  na- 
tion in  preference  to  those  of  another,  why  should  the 
government  interfere  ?  The  prospect  -of  commercial  re- 
laxations on  the  part  of  France  did  not  seem  sufficient 
reason  for  a  proceeding  which  might  provoke  retaliation 
on  the  part  of  Great  Britain,  and  deprive  us  of  the  priv- 
ilege which,  in  spite  of  all  her  restrictions,  we  enjoy. 


DISCRIMINATING    TONNAGE    DUTIES.  79 

ed  of  carrying  our  own  productions  thither  in  our  own  CHAPTER 

Baldwin  of  Georgia  energetically  defended  the  policy  1789. 
of  discrimination.  He  thought  they  had  very  strong 
evidence  of  the  public  sentiment  on  that  subject  in  the 
very  existence  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  The 
commercial  restrictions  placed  by  Great  Britain  on  our 
commerce  in  pursuit  of  her  selfish  policy  gave  rise  to  an 
unavailing  clamor,  and  excited  on  the  part  of  several 
states  feeble  attempts  to  counteract  the  detestable  regu- 
lations of  a  commercial  enemy.  These  proving  ineffi- 
cient, the  convention  at  Annapolis,  the  merit  of  which  he 
ascribed  to  Madison,  had  been  assembled,  for  the  express 
purpose  of  counteracting  those  regulations  on  general 
principles.  As  that  assembly  found  the  completion  of 
the  business  impossible  in  their  hands,  they  had  proposed 
the  calling  the  Convention  which,  in  framing  the  present 
Constitution,  had  effected  a  happy  revolution  in  politics 
and  commerce.  The  general  expectation  of  the  country 
was,  that  a  discrimination  should  be  made  ;  that  those 
nations  which  had  not  yet  explained  the  terms  on  which 
intercourse  might  be  carried  on,  or  which  had  established 
regulations  bearing  hard  on  such  intercourse,  may  know 
our  ability  and  disposition  to  bestow  or  withhold  advant- 
ages according  as  we  find  a  principle  of  reciprocity  pre- 
vailing or  not. 

Fitzsimmons  proposed  to  state,  for  the  information 
of  the  committee,  the  circumstances  under  which  the 
British  had  obtained  so  great  a  preponderance  in  our 
trade,  and  the  difference  between  the  regulations  of 
France  and  England  relative  to  American  commerce. 
During  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  the  Americans  were 
not  only  deprived  of  a  large  part  of  the  shipping  they 
had  formerly  possessed,  but,  to  a  great  extent  also,  of 


^Q  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  means  of  building  more.  Immediately  after  the 
_  *'  peace.  British  merchants,  agents,  and  factors,  took  the 
1789.  opportunity  to  establish  themselves  among  us.  By  these 
men,  and  the  capital  at  their  command,  we  were  furnish- 
ed with  vessels  for  the  transportation  of  our  products, 
almost  the  whole  of  our  trade  in  some  states  being  car- 
ried on  by  this  means.  Under  the  existing  British  laws, 
American  vessels  might  carry  into  the  ports  of  Great 
Britain  all  the  products  of  the  United  States,  but  noth- 
ing else.  No  higher  duties  were  exacted  than  on  im- 
portations in  British  bottoms,  except  harbor-dues  for  the 
support  of  lights,  which  in  some  cases  were  pretty  heavy, 
but  which  were  paid  alike  by  all  vessels  not  British. 
American  vessels  were  admitted  into  the  ports  of  France 
nearly  on  an  equal  footing  with  French  vessels.  Amer- 
ican ships  sold  in  France  were  entitled  to  all  the  privi- 
leges of  French-built  ships.  Our  vessels  might  be  sold 
in  England  also,  but,  under  the  navigation  laws,  such 
purchased  ships  could  not  be  employed  in  the  colonial 
trade,  and  their  price  was  lessened  in  consequence.  Amer- 
ican vessels  were  not  permitted  to  enter  the  ports  of  the 
British  West  Indies ;  but  American  produce  of  every 
description,  carried  thither  in  British  ships,  was  admis- 
sible, and  this  trade  was  very  beneficial  to  some  of  the 
states.  American  ships  were  admitted  to  the  French 
West  India  ports  on  the  same  footing  with  French  ships, 
but  the  articles  of  American  produce  allowed  to  be  car- 
ried there  were  few  and  of  little  value,  only  lumber,  live 
stock,  and  fish,  the  latter  subject  to  a  heavy  and  almost 
prohibitory  duty.  He  thought  there  was  no  danger  of 
retaliatory  restrictions  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain. 
"•What  she  takes  from  us  now,  she  takes  because  she 
can  get  it  so  cheap  nowhere  else.  Rice  and  tobacco 
could  not  be  had  elsewhere  in  sufficient  quantities.  Lum- 


DISCRIMINATING    TONNAGE    DUTIES.  Ql 

ber  for  her  islands  in  the  West  Indies  she  had  iu  vain  CHAPTER 
attempted  to  procure  from  her  own  North  American  col-  .. 

onies.  Thus  circumstanced,  we  did  not  run  the  risk  of  1789. 
osing  her  commerce  by  any  regulations  we  might  make  ; 
yet,  for  our  own  sake,  we  ought  not  to  carry  them  so 
far  as  to  deprive  ourselves  of  the  convenience  afforded  by 
British  ships,  while  unsupplied  with  shipping  of  our  own. 
We  might  draw  a  revenue  out  of  them  by  a  tonnage 
duty,  as,  under  the  circumstances  stated,  it  must  cer- 
tainly be  paid,  not  by  the  producers,  but  by  the  consum- 
ers of  the  articles  carried." 

The  tonnage  duty  on  foreign  vessels  belonging  to  na- 
tions having  treaties  with  the  United  States  having  been 
fixed,  by  a  vote  of  the  committee,  .at  thirty  cents  per 
ton,  Lawrence  moved  to  impose  the  same  rate  on  all 
foreign  ships  whatever  ;  but  to  this  motion  Madison 
made  a  vigorous  opposition.  "  The  more  the  subject 
had  been  examined,  the  necessity  for  discriminating  du- 
ties had  more  clearly  appeared.  If  it  were  expedient 
for  America  to  have  vessels  employed  in  commerce  at 
all,  it  will  be  proper  that  she  have  enough  to  answer  all 
the  purposes  intended  ;  to  form  a  school  for  seamen, 
to  lay  the  foundation  for  a  navy,  and  so  to  be  able  to 
support  herself  against  the  interference  of  foreigners. 
There  did  not  seem  much  weight  in  the  observation  that 
such  a  discriminating  duty  was  a  burden  on  the  com- 
munity, and  particularly  oppressive  to  some  parts  of  it ; 
out,  allowing  the  fact,  it  seemed  to  be  a  burden  of  that 
kind  which  might  ultimately  save  us  from  a  greater. 
He  considered  an  acquisition  of  maritime  strength  es- 
sential to  the  country.  If  we  are  ever  so  unfortunate  as 
to  be  engaged  in  war,  what  but  this  can  defend  our 
towns  and  cities  on  the  sea-coast  ?  What  but  this  can 
enable  us  to  repel  an  invading  enemy  ?  Those  parts  of 
IV.— F 


y2  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

CHAPTER  the  country  said  to  bear  an  undue  proportion  of  the  bur* 
den  were  the  very  ones  most  exposed  to  the  operations 
L789.  °f  &  war  of  depredations,  and  likely  to  need  the  greatest 
exertions  of  the  Union  in  their  defense.  If  they  wer« 
required  to  make  some  little  sacrifice  to  obtain  this  im- 
portant object,  they  would  be  peculiarly  rewarded  for  it 
in  the  hour  of  danger."  These  opinions  in  favor  of  a 
naval  defense  Madison  afterward  found  himself  obliged 
to  resign  to  his  party  connections.  Yet,  in  the  course 
of  his  own  administration  as  president,  they  acquired, 
by  the  test  of  an  unfortunate  experience,  a  weight  of 
authority  such  as  no  mere  argument  could  give,  and  too 
decisive  to  be  any  longer  withstood. 

Tucker  was  in  favor  of  discrimination,  but  he  thought 
the  other  duty  was  already  fixed  too  high,  and,  with  a  view 
to  reducing  that  to  twenty  cents,  he  moved  to  insert 
thirty-five  cents  in  the  blank.  In  the  course  of  the  dis- 
cussion that  followed,  Fitzsimmons  observed  that,  al- 
though the  Virginia  discriminating  duty  had  been  as  high 
as  one  dollar  per  ton,  no  difficulty  had  been  experienced 
in  that  state  in  getting  British  vessels  to  carry  their  prod- 
uce. Finally,  the  blank  was  filled  with  fifty  cents,  and 
both  sets  of  resolutions,  those  relating  to  the  tariff  and 
those  as  to  tonnage  duties,  were  reported  to  the  House. 

April  24.  These  reports  coming  up  for  consideration  in  the 
House,  Boudinot  complained  that  the  general  scale  of 
taxation  was  too  high  ;  not  for  the  articles  to  bear,  but 
for  the  due  collection  of  the  revenue.  This  was  the  case 
especially  with  spirits ;  and  as  he  feared  that  smuggling 
would  be  an  inevitable  consequence,  he  moved  to  reduce 
the  duty  on  those  of  highest  proof  from  fifteen  to  twelve 
cents  per  gallon.  This  motion  was  warmly  supported 
by  Jackson,  who  stated  that  Georgia  abounded  in  timber 
of  most  luxuriant  growth,  which  could  only  be  excl? ringed 


REVENUE    SYSTEM— DUTIES    ON    IMPORTS.          y  3 

for  West  India  rum — an  exchange  on  which  was  found-  CUAPTEB 

ed  a  very  considerable  commerce,  liable  to  be  seriously 

affected  by  the  imposition  of  heavy  duties.  The  coast  1789. 
of  Georgia  was  so  intersected  by  navigable  creeks  and 
rivers,  that  it  would  be  next  to  impossible  to  collect  the 
revenue,  if  the  people  were  disposed  to  evade  it ;  and 
there  was  no  surer  way  to  produce  that  disposition  than 
to  impose  such  heavy  duties  as  to  make  it  their  interest 
to  do  so.  The  same  idea  was  strongly  urged  by  Wads- 
worth,  who  referred  to  the  difficulty  which  Great  Britain 
had  encountered  in  collecting  her  duty  of  three  pence  on 
molasses. 

Madison  "  would  not  believe  that  the  virtue  of  our 
citizens  was  so  weak  as  not  to  resist  that  temptation  to 
smuggling  which  a  seeming  interest  might  create.  Their 
conduct  under  the  British  government  was  no  proof  of 
a  disposition  to  evade  a  just  tax.  At  that  time  they 
conceived  themselves  oppressed  by  a  nation  in  whose 
councils  they  had  no  share,  and  on  that  principle  resist- 
ance was  justified  to  their  consciences.  The  case  was 
now  altered :  all  had  a  voice  in  every  regulation  ;  and  he 
did  not  despair  of  a  great  revolution  in  sentiment  when 
it  came  to  be  understood  that  the  man  who  wounds  the 
honor  of  his  country  by  a  baseness  in  defrauding  the 
revenue,  at  the  same  time  exposes  his  neighbors  to  fur- 
ther impositions."  Boudinot's  motion  did  not  prevail; 
and  though  the  attempt  was  afterward  renewed,  the  only 
reduction  to  which  the  House  would  consent  was  that 
of  one  cent  per  gallon  in  the  duty  on  molasses. 

The  proposal  to  discriminate  between  foreign  nations, 
so  much  discussed  in  relation  to  tonnage,  was  now 
brought  forward  in  a  new  shape,  it  being  proposed  to 
levy  a  diminished  rate  of  duty  on  spirits  imported  from 
countries  in  alliance  with  us.  Madison  zealously  sup* 


fl4  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

CHAPTP:R  ported   this   motion,   on   the   politick,   grounds    already 

stated.      Lawrence  was  equally  decided  the  other  way. 

1789.  "  Though  as  much  impressed  as  any  man  with  a  lively 
sense  of  gratitude  to  the  French  nation  for  their  im- 
portant services  during  the  late  Revolution,  yet,  before 
acceding  to  a  measure  like  this,  he  would  ask  this  ques- 
tion, Are  the  United  States  so  reduced  as  to  be  obliged 
to  pay  tribute  to  their  allies  ?  For  what  are  these  sac- 
rifices to  be  made  ?  Is  our  commerce  on  such  a  fa- 
vorable footing  with  France  as  to  require  this  mani- 
festation of  regard  on  our  part  ?  True  it  is,  we  have 
a  right  to  regulate  our  commerce,  and  to  declare  the 
terms  on  which  foreigners  may  trade  among  us.  But 
we  ought  to  recollect  the  expediency  of  exercising  those 
powers  so  as  not  to  give  umbrage  to  a  nation  from 
whose  policy  we  derive  considerable  advantage,  espe- 
cially as  we  are  not  in  a  situation  to  wage  a  war  ol  com- 
mercial regulations.  A  time  might  come,  and  soon, 
when  our  tonnage  should  be  so  increased,  and  oui 
manufactures  so  improved,  as  to  enable  us  to  venture 
vipon  regulations  adverse  to  that  nation's  commerce. 
When  that  -moment  arrived,  he  should  be  as  ready  to 
enter  on  that  business  as  any  man.  At  present  it  was 
certainly  impolitic,  both  as  affecting  the  revenue  and 
engaging  us  in  commercial  hostilities." 

"  I  acknowledge  with  pleasure,"  said  Madison,  in 
reply,  "  the  services  America  has  received  from  the 
French  nation.  I  admit  the  debt  we  owe  her.  The 
preference,  however,  we  are  inclined  to  show  her,  in 
common  with  other  nations  with  which  we  have  com- 
mercial treaties,  ought  not  to  be  considered  as  a  tribute, 
but  rather  as  a  lesson  to  those  powers  that  do  not  come 
within  that  description. 

u  Let  us  review  the  policy  o('  Great  Britain.     Has 


REVENUE    SYSTEM-DUTIES    ON    IMPORTS.          35 

she  ever  shown  any  disposition  to  anter  into  reciprocal  CHAPTEH 

regulations  ?      Has   she  not,   by   a   temporizing   policy, 

plainly  declared  that,  until  we  are  willing  and  able  to  1789 
do  justice  to  ourselves,  she  will  shut  us  out  from  her 
ports  and  make  us  tributary  to  her  ?  Have  we  not  seen 
her  taking  one  legislative  step  after  another  to  destroy 
our  commerce  ?  Has  not  her  Legislature  given  discre- 
tionary powers  to  the  executive,  that  so  it  might  be  ever 
on  the  watch,  ready  to  seize  any  advantage  which  our 
weakness  might  offer  ?  And  have  we  not  reason  to 
believe  that  she  will  continue  a  policy  void  of  regard  to 
us,  so  long  as  she  can  gather  into  her  lap  the  benefits 
Jve  feebly  endeavor  to  withhold,  and  for  which  she  ought 
ather  to  court  us,  by  allowing  to  our  ships  an  open  and 
liberal  participation  in  the  commerce  we  desire  ?  If  she 
finds  us  indecisive  in  counteracting  her  machinations, 
will  she  not  continue  to  consult  her  own  interests  as 
heretofore?  If  we  remain  in  a  state  of  apathy,  we  shall 
not  fulfill  the  object  of  our  appointment.  Most  of  the 
states  of  the  Union  have,  in  some  shape  or  other,  shown 
symptoms  of  their  disapprobation  of  British  policy. 
Those  states  have  now  relinquished  the  power  of  con- 
tinuing their  systems ;  but  they  have  done  so  under  the 
impression  that  a  more  efficient  government  Would  ef- 
fectually support  their  views.  If  we  are  timid  and  in- 
active, we  shall  disappoint  the  just  expectations  of  our 
constituents,  and  the  expectations,  I  venture  to  say,  of 
the  very  nation  against  whom,  this  measure  is  princi- 
pally directed.  It  must  be  productive  of  benefit  to  give 
some  early  symptom  of  the  power  and  will  of  the  new 
government  to  redress  our  national  wrongs.  We  shall 
soon  be  in  a  condition,  we  now  are  in  a  condition,  to 
wage  a  commercial  warfare  with  that  nation.  The  prod- 
uce of  this  country  is  more  necessary  to  the  rest  of  the 


86  HISTORY    OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  world  than  that  of  other  countries  is  to  America.     Were 

we  disposed   to   hazard  the  experiment  of  interdicting 

1789.  the  intercourse  between  us  and  the  powers  not  in  alli- 
ance with  us,  we  should  have  overtures  of  the  most 
advantageous  kinds  tendered  by  those  nations.  If  we 
have  the  disposition,  we  have  abundantly  the  power,  to 
vindicate  our  cause.  Let  us  shew  the  world  that  we 
know  how  to  discriminate  between  our  commercial 
friends  and  our  commercial  enemies.  Let  us  show  that 
if  a  war  breaks  out  in  Europe,  and  is  extended  to,  and 
carried  on  in,  the  West  Indies,  we  can  aid  and  succor 
the  one,  and  shut  the  other  out  of  our  ports.  By  these 
favors,  without  entering  into  the  contest,  or  violating  the 
law  of  nations,  or  going  beyond  the  privileges  of  neu- 
trals, we  can  give  the  most  decided  advantage  to  one  or 
other  of  the  warring  nations." 

Apart  from  her  disinclination  hitherto  to  enter  into 
permanent  arrangements  on  the  subject  of  commerce, 
the  principal,  it  may  be  said,  the  sole  ground  of  com- 
plaint against  the  commercial  policy  of  Great  Britain, 
was,  the  exclusion  of  American  vessels  from  her  colonial 
ports.  That  exclusion,  however,  was  not  aimed  partic- 
ularly at  the  United  States.  It  was  only  an  application 
to  them  of  that  system  of  colonial  policy  on  which  Greai 
Britain  had  so  long  acted.  A  similar  exclusion  from 
the  colonies  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  embracing  the  whole 
American  continent  south  of  the  United  States,  and 
extending  to  products  as  well  as  vessels,  was  not  thoughl 
of  as  a  grievance.  There  was,  to  be  sure,  this  differ- 
ence, that  the  United  States  had  once  enjoyed,  as  British 
colonies,  that  trade  with  the  British  West  Indies,  from 
which,  as  an  independent  nation,  they  were  now  ex- 
cluded. As  all  American  ports  were  open  to  British 
vessels,  it  was  insisted  that,  in  the  way  of  fair  reci- 


REVENUE    S  VTSTEM— DUTIES    ON    IMPORTS.          Q7 

ferocity,  all   British   ports,  whether   in   the    colonies  or  CHAPTEH 
elsewhere,  ought  to  be  equally  open  to  American  vessels.         ' 
For  near  two  generations,  this  West  India  trade  con-  1789. 
tinued    a    subject  of   remonstrances,   negotiations,   and 
retaliations,  during  all  which  period  Great  Britain  held 
firmly  to  her  own  system,  allowing  a  participation  in 
her  colonial  trade,  if  at  all,  only  on  terms  prescribed  by 
herself.      Finally,  at  a  very  recent  period,  having  aban- 
doned, upon  new  views  of  her  own  interest,  that  colo- 
nial policy  so  tog  considered  a  main  pillar  of  her  com- 
mercial  greatness,  Great  Britain  has  voluntarily  thrown 
3pen    her  colonial  ports   to   all   the  world,   thus  of  her 
own  accord  granting  to  the  United  States  what  no  sys- 
tem of.  retaliation  or  counter-exclusion  had  been  able  to 
extort. 

The  views  taken  by  Madison  were  supported  by  Fitz- 
sirnmons,  and  were  so  far  sustained  by  the  House  that 
they  agreed  to  a  discrimination  of  three  cents  per  gallon 
on  spirits  of  highest  proof,  and  two  cents  on  all  others, 
in  favor  of  nations  having  commercial  treaties  with  the 
United  States. 

The  molasses  duty  coming  next  in  order,  the  Massa- 
chusetts representatives  made  a  new  and  strong  effort  to 
reduce  it.  Goodhue  thus  stated  the  case  :  "  Molasses  is 

• 

obtained  almost  wholly  from  the  French  West  Indies,  in 
exchange  for  our  fish.  Nine  months  in  the  year  our  fish- 
ermen are  employed  upon  the  Banks,  but  the  fish  they 
catch  during  part  of  that  time  are  unfit  for  any  other 
market,  nor  can  we  get  any  other  return  for  them  but 
rum  and  molasses,  as  France  does  not  allow  us  to  export 
from  her  islands  any  other  commodities,  and  the  reason 
for  allowing  these  is  that,  if  carried  to  France,  they  might 
interfere  with  the  French  wines  and  brandies.  If  we  did 
net  take  these  articles,  they  would  prohibit  our  fish.  If 


88  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  importation  of  molasses  should  fall  through,  our  fish* 

eries  would  fall  with  it.      The  committee  have  placed  a 

1789.  duty  on  this  article  equivalent  to  thirty  per  cent.,  higher 
in  proportion  than  any  other  on  the  list.  The  reason 
given  was  that  a  revenue  ought  to  be  raised  on  the  rum 
manufactured  from  it.  But  it  would  be  more  just  to  raise 
that  revenue  by  an  excise  at  the  still-head,  so  as  not  to 
include  the  molasses  consumed  in  the  raw  state.  Cus- 
tom has  made  it  a  necessary  of  life  among  the  poorer 
classes  of  our  people  ;  those  who  can  not  afford  the  ex- 
pense of  sugar  use  molasses.  The  tax  is  unequal  ;  it 
would  fall  chiefly  on  Massachusetts,  which  imports  an- 
nually thirty  thousand  hogsheads,  upon  which,  at  the  rate 
proposed,  a  greater  duty  would  be  paid  than  on  all  the  rum 
and  sugar  imported  into  Pennsylvania,  articles  of  which 
Massachusetts  also  imports  her  proportion."  Goodhue 
was  seconded  with  great  zeal  by  Gerry,  Wadsworth,  and 
Ames.  It  was  stated,  in  the  course  of  the  debate,  that 
the  cod-fishery  employed  four  hundred  and  eighty  vessels, 
amounting  to  twenty-seven  thousand  tons,  and  half  as 
much  tonnage  more  in  carrying  the  fish  to  market,  the 
whole  amount  taken  yearly  being  four  hundred  thousand 
quintals.  The  capital  employed  in  the  business  of  dis- 
tilling was  estimated  at  half  a  million  of  dollars.  Both 
the  fisheries  and  the  distilleries  had  suffered  greatly  by 
the  Revolution.  At  one  period  they  were  almost  anni- 
hilated, but  had  gradually  recovered  since  the  peace. 
The  old  market  for  New  England  rum  on  the  coast  of 
Africa  had  been  regained,  and  new  ones  had  been  lately 
opened  in  the  north  of  Europe.  But  the  fishermen  could 
no  longer  sell  their  fish,  as  formerly,  in  the  British  West 
Indies,  and  they  had  lost  the  annual  bounty  of  twenty 
thousand  pounds  which  the  British  government  had  been 
accustomed  to  pay. 


REVENUE    SYSTEM-DUTIES    ON    IMPORTS.          g  $ 

To  all  these  arguments,  it  was  again  urged  in  reply  CHAPTER 

that  the  duty  on  molasses  was  nothing  more,  in  fact,  than 

a  substitute  for  the  state  duties  heretofore  levied  on  the  1789 
import  of  New  England  rum,  and  which,  by  the  adoption 
of  the  new  Constitution,  had  fallen  to  the  ground.  Though 
paid,  in  the  first  place,  by  the  Massachusetts  importers, 
it  must  ultimately  fall  on  the  consumers  of  the  rum,  who 
wore  scattered  throughout  the  United  States.  To  this 
were  added  various  reflections  on  the  deleterious  effects 
of  rum,  by  which  Ames  was  provoked  into  the  following 
diatribe,  betraying  already,  at  that  early  day,  the  ultra- 
conservative  cast  of  his  temper.  He  "  was  for  treating 
as  idle  the  visionary  notion  of  reforming  the  morals  of  the 
people  by  a  tax  on  molasses.  We  are  not  to  consider 
ourselves  while  here  as  at  a  church  or  school,  to  listen  to 
the  harangues  of  speculative  piety  ;  we  are  to  talk  of  the 
political  interests  committed  to  our  charge.  When  we 
take  up  the  subject  of  morality,  let  our  system  look  to- 
ward that  object,  and  not  confound  itself  with  revenue 
and  protection  of  manufactures.  If  gentlemen  conceive 
that  a  law  will  direct  the  taste  of  the  people  from  spirit- 
uous to  malt  liquors,  they  must  have  more  romantic  no- 
tions of  legislative  influence  than  experience  justifies." 

The  House  would  not  reduce  the  duty,  but,  for  the 
consolation  of  the  distillers,  agreed  to  what  they  had  re- 
fused in  committee — a  drawback  to  the  amount  of  three 
cents  per  gallon  on  all  rum  exported  to  foreign  countries. 
The  list  of  articles  being  gone  through  with,  a  special 
committee  was  appointed  to  bring  in  a  bill. 

The  resolutions  respecting  tonnage  duties  coming  up,    May  4 
Lawrence  made  another  vigorous  effort  to  do  away  with 
the  discrimination  in  favor  of  allied  nations.      u  As  we 
had  no  treaties  with  Spain  and  Portugal,  they,  as  wel. 
as  Great  Britain,  might  take  offense,  and  might  retort  by 


90  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

CHAPTER  levying  duties  on  our  fish,  of  which  they  received  large 
'  quantities.  A  commercial  treaty  with  Great  Britain, 
1789.  now  that  the  new  government  had  commenced  its  opera- 
tions, would  be  more  likely  to  be  secured  bv  more  mod- 
erate means.  It  was  the  inability  of  the  old  confedera- 
tion to  fulfill  its  engagements  which  had  hitherto  been 
urged  by  the  British  government  as  their  chief  objection 
to  a  treaty  of  commerce.  Possessed  of  capital  as  Great 
Britain  was,  she  was  far  better  able  to  bear  the  loss  of  a 
suspension  of  trade  than  we  were,  and,  in  such  a  contest, 
would  have  a  decided  advantage.  Even  as  matters  now 
stood,  our  trade  with  England  was  very  advantageous. 
Why  run  the  risk  of  losing  it,  without  an  object  worthy 
of  the  sacrifice  ?  Our  vessels  and  products  were  admit- 
ted into  Great  Britain  on  terms  more  favorable  than  those 
of  any  other  foreign  nation ;  and  we  possessed,  also,  the 
advantage  of  trading  to  her  possessions  in  the  East,  which 
might  be  regarded  as  a  partial  compensation  for  the  loss 
of  the  West  India  traffic.  Why  run  the  risk  of  exclu- 
sion there  also  ?" 

Madison,  in  reply,  still  dwelt  on  the  popularity  of  the 
proposed  discrimination,  a  policy  adopted  in  all  or  most 
of  the  states,  New  Hampshire  ha\ing  set  the  example, 
which  had  been  rapidly  imitated.  Supported  by  Fitz- 
simmons,  he  still  insisted  that,  in  a  war  of  commercial 
regulations,  the  advantage  would  be  wholly  on  our  side 
He  was  sorry  that  Spain  and  Portugal  should  fall  into 
the  same  category  with  Great  Britain  ;  but,  as  they  had 
no  treaties  with  us,  he  could  not  discover  any  principle 
which  would  sustain  a  distinction  in  their  favor.  The 
House,  after  an  animated  debate,  sustained  Madison's 
views  by  a  decisive  vote. 

The  representatives  from  Georgia  and  South  Carolina 
admitted  the  policy  of  discriminating  in  favor  of  our  al- 


REVENUE  S¥ STEM— TONNAGE  DUTIES.      91 

lies,  and  also  of  protection  to  our  own  shipping  ;  but  they  CHAPTER 

warmly  protested  against  the  extent  to  which  this  policy 

was  proposed  to  be  carried.  A  gloomy  picture  was  drawn  1789. 
of  the  distresses  and  embarrassments  of  these  two  states. 
The  planters,  according  to  Jackson,  "  courted  by  luxury, 
which  had  exposed  all  its  charms  to  impassion  their  souls, 
and  prompted  on  by  the  flattering  terms  of  obtaining  a 
gratification  of  their  wishes  by  a  long  credit,  had  put 
themselves  into  the  power  of  commercial  harpies,  and 
were  persecuted  by  British  tyrants  in  the  shape  of  cred- 
itors." Many  of  the  old  ante-Revolutionary  debts  still 
remained  unpaid.  After  laying  so  many  duties  to  en- 
courage manufactures,  a  heavy  tonnage  duty  must  now 
be  added  to  protect  American  shipping  !  It  would  be  im- 
possible to  obtain  a  sufficient  supply  of  American  ships; 
and  besides,  they  could  not  compete  with  British  vessels, 
owned  by  the  creditors  of  the  planters,  who  took  the  prod- 
uce in  payment  of  their  debts,  and  insisted  also  on  the 
additional  profit  of  transporting  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  discrimination  in  favor  of 
American  shipping,  to  the  full  extent  agreed  to,  was  zeal- 
ously maintained,  not  by  the  Eastern  members  only,  but 
by  Madison  and  most  of  his  colleagues  from  Virginia, 
who  evidently  expected  that  state  to  take  a  leading  part 
in  commerce  and  navigation.  It  was  as  yet  a  matter 
of  doubt  whether  Baltimore  or  Norfolk  would  become  the 
great  port  of  the  Chesapeake  ;  indeed,  there  were  those 
who  entertained  hopes  that  Norfolk  might  even  rival 
New  York. 

The  tariff  bill  having  been  reported,  and  being  under  May  is 
discussion  on  the  question  of  its  second  reading,  Parker, 
of  Virginia,  moved  to  insert  a  clause  imposing  a  duty 
of  ten  dollars  on  every  slave  imported.      "  He  was  sorry 
the  Constitution   prevented  Congress   from   prohibiting 


92  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  importation  altogether.  It  was  contrary  to  revolu* 
tion  principles,  and  ought  not  to  be  permitted."  The 
1789.  only  state  which  seemed  to  have  a  direct  pecuniary  in- 
terest  in  this  question  was  Georgia.  In  all  the  other 
states  at  present  represented  on  the  floor,  the  importation 
of  slaves,  whether  from  Africa  or  elsewhere,  was  prohib- 
ited. Even  South  Carolina,  just  before  the  meeting  of 
the  Federal  Convention,  had  passed  an  act,  as  she  had 
been  accustomed  to  do  occasionally  in  colonial  times, 
when  the  prices  of  produce  were  too  low  to  be  remuner- 
ative, prohibiting,  for  one  year,  the  importation  of  slaves 
— a  prohibition  since  renewed  for  three  years.  But,  not- 
withstanding this  temporary  prohibition,  the  same  jeal- 
ousy as  to  her  right  of  importation,  so  strongly  mani- 
fested in  the  Federal  Convention,  was  now  exhibited  on 
the  floor  of  the  House.  Smith,  the  representative  from 
the  Charleston  district,  "  hoped  that  such  an  important 
and  serious  proposition  would  not  be  hastily  adopted. 
It  was  rather  a  late  moment  for  the  first  introduction 
of  a  subject  so  big  with  serious  consequences.  No  one 
topic  had  been  yet  introduced  so  important  to  South 
Carolina  and  the  welfare  of  the  Union."  Sherman 
threw  out  some  suggestions  similar  to  those  he  had  of- 
fered in  the  Federal  Convention.  He  "  approved  the 
object  of  the  motion,  but  did  not  think  it  a  fit  subject  to 
be  embraced  in  this  bill.  He  could  not  reconcile  him- 
self to  the  insertion  of  human  beings,  as  a  subject  of  im- 
post, among  goods,  wares,  and  merchandise.  He  hoped 
the  motion  would  be  withdrawn  for  the  present,  and 
taken  up  afterward  as  an  independent  subject." 

Jackson  "  was  not  surprised,  however  others  might  be 
so,  at  the  quarter  whence  this  motion  came.  Virginia, 
an  old  settled  state,  had  her  complement  of  slaves,  and 
the  natural  increase  being  sufficient  for  her  purpose,  she 


DUTY  ON  SLAVES  IMPORTED.          93 

was  careless  of  recruiting  her  numbers  by  importation,  CHAPTEB 

But  gentlemen  ought  to  let  their  neighbors  get  supplied        . 

before  they  imposed  such  a  burden.  He  knew  this  17 89 
business  was  viewed  in  an  odious  light  at  the  eastward, 
because  the  people  there  were  capable  of  doing  their  own 
work,  and  had  no  occasion  for  slaves.  But  gentlemen 
ought  to  have  some  feeling  for  others.  Surely  they  do 
not  mean  to  tax  us  for  every  ccmfort  and  enjoyment  of 
life,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  take  from  us  the  means 
of  procuring  them  !  He  was  sure,  from  the  unsuitable- 
ness  of  the  motion  to  the  business  now  before  the  House, 
and  the  want  of  time  to  consider  it,  the  gentleman's 
candor  would  induce  him  to  withdraw  it.  Should  it 
ever  be  brought  forward  again,  he  hoped  it  would  com- 
prehend the  white  slaves  as  well  as  the  black,  imported 
from  all  the  jails  of  Europe ;  wretches  convicted  of  the 
most  flagrant  crimes,  who  were  brought  in  and  sold  with- 
out any  duty  whatever.  They  ought  to  be  taxed  equal- 
ly with  Africans,  and  he  had  no  doubt  of  the  equal  con- 
stitutionality and  propriety  of  such  a  course."  These 
assertions  of  Jackson  as  to  white  slaves  imported  from 
all  the  jails  of  Europe  must  be  taken  with  a  good  deal 
of  allowance.  The  importation  of  indented  white  serv- 
ants, entirely  stopped  by  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  had 
as  yet  but  very  partially  revived,  and  never  recovered 
any  great  vigor.  Some  cargo&s  of  Germans  had  been 
recently  brought  to  Philadelphia ;  but  the  importation 
of  indented  servants  from  Great  Britain  had  lately  re- 
ceived a  decisive  blow  from  an  act  of  Parliament,  the 
intent  of  which  was  to  prevent  the  indenting,  for  trans- 
portation to  America,  of  persons  who  might  carry  thither 
the  manufacturing  skill  of  Great  Britain,  but  the  terms 
of  which  were  comprehensive  enough  to  embrace  laborers 
of  all  sorts. 


94  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  In  reply  to  the  suggestions  of  Sherman,  Jackson,  and 
'  others,  Parker  declared  "  that,  having  introduced  the 
1789.  motion  on  mature  reflection,  he  did  not  like  to  withdraw 
it.  The  gentleman  from  Connecticut  had  said  that  hu- 
man beings  ought  not  to  be  enumerated  with  goods, 
wares,  and  merchandise.  Yet  he  believed  they  were 
looked  upon  by  African  traders  in  that  light.  He  hoped 
Congress  would  do  all  in  their  power  to  restore  to  hu- 
man nature  its  inherent  privileges  ;  to  wipe  oft',  if  pos- 
sible,  the  stigma  under  which  America  labored ;  to  do 
away  the  inconsistency  in  our  principles  justly  charged 
upon  us ;  and  to  show,  by  our  actions,  the  pure  benefi- 
cence of  the  doctrine  held  out  to  the  world  in  our  Dec- 
laration of  Independence." 

Sherman  still  "  thought  the  principles  of  the  bill  and 
the  principles  of  the  motion  inconsistent.  The  principle 
of  the  bill  was  to  raise  revenue ;  it  was  the  principle 
of  the  motion  to  correct  a  moral  evil.  Considering  the 
proposed  duty  as  having  revenue  for  its  object,  it  would 
be  unjust,  because  two  or  three  states  would  bear  the 
whole  burden.  He  should  therefore  vote  against  the 
present  motion,  though  he  had  no  objection  to  taking  up 
the  subject  by  itself  on  the  principles  of  humanity  and 
policy."  Ames  "  detested  slavery  from  his  soul ;  but 
he  had  some  doubts  whether  imposing  a  duty  on  their 
importation  would  not  have  an  appearance  of  counte- 
nancing the  practice."  "  It  is  the  fashion  of  the  day," 
said  Jackson,  "  to  favor  the  liberty  of  slaves.  He  be- 
lieved them  better  off  as  they  were,  and  better  off  than 
they  had  been  in  Africa.  Experience  had  shown  that 
liberated  slaves  would  not  work  for  a  living.  Thrown 
upon  the  world  without  property  or  connections,  they 
can  not  live  but  by  pilfering.  Will  Virginia  set  her 
negroes  free?  When  the  practice  comes  to  be  tried 


DUTY  ON  SLAVES  IMPORTED.          95 

there,  the  sound  of  liberty  will  lose  those  charms  wb\ch  CHAPTEB 
make  it  grateful  to  the  ravished  ear."  ' 

Madison  supported  Parker's  motion  in  an  elaboiate  1789. 
speech,  in  which  he  replied  to  all  the  various  objections 
urged  against  it.  "  The  confounding  men  with  mer- 
chandise might  be  easily  avoided  by  altering  the  title 
of  the  bill ;  it  was,  in  fact,  the  very  object  of  the  mo- 
tion to  prevent  men,  so  far  as  the  power  of  Congress 
extended,  from  being  confounded  with  merchandise. 
The  clause  in  the  Constitution  allowing  a  tax  to  be  im- 
posed, though  the  traffic  could  not  be  prohibited  for 
twenty  years,  was  inserted,  he  believed,  for  the  very 
purpose  of  enabling  Congress  to  give  some  testimony  of 
the  sense  of  America  with  respect  to  the  African  trade. 
By  expressing  a  national  disapprobation  of  that  trade,  it 
is  to  be  hoped  we  may  destroy  it,  and  so  save  ourselves 
from  reproaches,  and  our  posterity  from  the  imbecility 
ever  attendant  on  a  country  filled  with  slaves.  This 
was  as  much  the  interest  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia 
as  of  any  other  states.  Every  addition  they  received  to 
their  number  of  slaves  tended  to  weakness,  and  rendered 
them  less  capable  of  self-defense.  In  case  of  hostilities 
with  foreign  nations,  their  slave  population  would  be  a 
means,  notxof  repelling  invasion,  but  of  inviting  attack. 
It  was  the  duty  of  the  general  government  to  protect 
every  part  of  the  Union  against  danger,  as  well  internal 
as  external.  Every  thing,  therefore,  which  tended  to 
increase  this  danger,  though  it  might  be  a  local  affair, 
yet,  if  it  involved  national  expense  or  safety,  became  of 
concern  to  every  part  of  the  Union,  and  a  proper  subject 
for  the  consideration  of  those  charged  with  the  general 
administration  of  the  government."  Bland  was  equally 
decided  with  Madison  and  Parker  in  support  of  the  mo* 
tion.  Burke  suggested  that  gentlemen  were  contend* 


96  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  ing  about  nothing ;  for  if  not  particularly  mentioned, 
slaves  would  still  fall  under  the  general  five  per  cent 

1789.  ad  valorem  duty  on  all  unenumerated  articles,  a  duty 
just  about  equivalent  to  the  one  proposed.  Madison 
replied  that  no  collector  of  the  customs  would  presume 
to  apply  the  terms  goods,  wares,  and  merchandise  tc 
persons  :  and  in  this  he  was  supported  by  Sherman, 
who  denied  that  persons  were  recognized  any  where  in 
the  Constitution  as  property.  He  thought  that  the 
clause  in  the  Constitution  on  which  the  present  motion 
was  founded  applied  as  much  to  other  persons  as  to 
slaves,  and  that  there  were  other  persons  to  whom  it 
ought  to  be  applied,  as  convicts,  for  instance ;  but  the 
whole  subject  ought  to  be  taken  up  by  itself.  Finally. 
upon  Madison's  suggestion,  Parker  consented  to  with- 
draw his  motion,  with  the  understanding  that  a  separate 
bill  should  be  brought  in.  A  committee  was  appointed  for 
that  purpose  ;  but  there  the  matter  was  suffered  to  rest. 

May  15.  When  the  Revenue  Bill  came  up  on  its  third  reading, 
a  motion  by  Madison  to  insert  an  amendment,  restricting 
the  period  of  its  continuance,  gave  rise  to  two  days'  de- 
bate. Madison,  Bland,  Gerry,  Hunting-ton  of  Connecti- 
cut, Smith,  Page,  Jackson,  and  Tucker  urged  in  favor 
of  the  motion  that  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution  was  not 
consistent  with  the  idea  of  a  perpetual  revenue  act. 
The  command  of  the  purse-strings  belonged  to  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people,  and  they  ought  not  to  relinquish 
it.  Gerry  conjured  up  the  idea  of  a  vast  fund  still  ac- 
cumulating after  the  public  debt  had  been  paid,  upon 
which  the  executive  would  seize  by  force,  and  make  him- 
self absolute.  It  was  contended,  on  the  other  hand,  by 
Ames,  Sherman,  Lawrence,  Clymer,  and  Boudinot,  that 
the  continuance  of  the  act  ought  at  least  to  be  coterm- 
inous with  the  object  for  which  it  was  passed.  That 


REVENUE    SYSTEM— FIRST    TARIFF.  97 

object  was  the  payment  of  the  public  debt  and  the  res-  CHAPTER 
toration  of  the  public  credit.     It  was  absurd  to  speak  of         ' 
a  law  as  perpetual  which  Congress  had  the  right  to  re-  1789 
peal  at  any  time.      A  revenue  act,  limited  to  two,  or 
three,  or  even  to  five  or  six  years,  never  would  give  con- 
fidence to  the  public  creditors.      The  ayes  and  noes  hav- 
ing been  called  for  the  first  time,  Madison's  motion  was 
carried  by  the  very  decided  majority  of  forty-one  to  eight. 
By  the  filling  of  the  blank,  the  operation  of  the  act  was 
limited  to  the  1st  of  June,  1796. 

Thus  amended,  the  bill  was  read  a  third  time,  passed, 
and  sent  to  the  Senate  for  concurrence.  Of  the  debates 
in  that  body  no  record  exists,  but  the  bill  came  back  to 
the  House  a  good  deal  altered.  The  discrimination  in 
the  duty  on  spirits  in  favor  of  allied  nations  was  struck 
out,  also  the  drawback  on  domestic  spirits  exported. 
Most  of  the  specific  duties  were  considerably  reduced, 
that  on  molasses  one  half.  Cotton  and  indigo  were 
added  to  the  list  of  protected  articles.  These  and  some 
other  amendments  were  agreed  to  by  the  House,  but  the 
discrimination  in  favor  of  nations  in  alliance  was  not 
given  up  without  great  reluctance,  and  only  on  the  re- 
port of  a  Committee  of  Conference.  The  House  also 
found  itself  obliged  to  allow  the  corresponding  discrimina- 
tion to  be  struck  out  of  the  Tonnage  Act,  the  Senate 
holding  out  the  idea  that  this  system  of  commercial  re- 
taliation might  form  the  subject  of  a  separate  bill.  It 
was,  indeed,  referred  to  a  committee,  but  no  report  was 
made  till  the  next  session. 

The  duties  imposed  under  this  first  Revenue  Law,  as 
finally  passed,  were  as  follows :  Distilled  spirits  of  Ja- 
maica proof,  ten  cents  per  gallon ;  other  distilled  spirits, 
eight  cents ;  molasses,  two  and  a  half  cents ;  Madeira 
wme,  eighteen  cents ;  other  wines,  ten  cents ;  beer,  ale, 
IV.— G 


98  HISTORY    OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  and  porter,  in  casks,  five  cents  per  gallon ;    in  bottles, 
'        twenty  cents  per  dozen  ;  bottled  cider,  the  same  ;   malt, 
1789.  ten  cents  per  bushel ;  brown  sugar,  one  cent  per  pound  ; 
loaf  sugar,  three  cents ;   other  sugars,  two  and  a  half 
cents  ;   coffee,  two  and  a  half  cents  ;    cocoa,  one  cent ; 
teas  from  China  and  India,  in  American  vessels,  bohea, 
six  cents  per  pound  ;    souchong,  and  other  black  teas, 
ten  cents;  hyson,  twenty  cents:  other  green  teas,  twelve 
cents  ;  on  teas  from  Europe,  in  American  vessels,  the  du- 
ties were  somewhat  higher,  and  higher  still  when  im- 
ported in  foreign  vessels ;  on  candles,  of  wax  or  sperma- 
ceti,  six  cents  per  pound ;    tallow  candles,  two  cents  ; 
cheese,  four  cents  per  pound  ;    soap,  two  cents ;   boots, 
per  pair,  fifty  cents ;  shoes,  of  leather,  seven  cents ;  of 
silk  or  stuff,  ten  cents ;   cables  and  tarred  cordage,  sev- 
enty-five cents  per  hundred  weight ;   untarred  cordage, 
ninety  cents ;  twine  and  pack-thread,  two  dollars ;  un- 
wrought  steel,  fifty  cents  per  hundred  weight ;  nails  and 
spikes,  one  cent  per  pound ;  salt,  six  cents  per  bushel : 
manufactured  tobacco,  six  cents  per  pound ;  indigo,  six- 
teen cents  per  pound  ;  wool  and  cotton  cards,  fifty  cents 
per  dozen ;  coal,  two  cents  per  bushel;  pickled  fish,  sev- 
enty-five cents  per   barrel ;    dried   fish,   fifty  cents  per 
quintal ;  playing  cards,  ten  cents  per  pack  ;  hemp,  sixty 
cents  per  hundred  weight;  cotton,  three  cents  per  pound. 
In  addition  to  these  specific  duties,  an  ad  valorem  duty 
of  ten  per  cent,  was  imposed  on  glass  of  all  kinds  (black 
quart  bottles  exeepted),  china,  stone,  and  earthen-ware, 
gunpowder,  paints,  shoe  and  knee  buckles,  and  gold  and 
silver  lace  and  leaf.      Seven  and  a  half  per  cent,  ad  va- 
lorem  was   charged    upon  blank  books,   paper,   cabinet 
wares,  leather,  ready-made  clothing,  hats,  gloves,  milli- 
nery, canes,  brushes,  gold  and  silver  and  plated  ware  and 
jewelry,  buttons,  saddles,  slit  and  rolled  iron,  and  cast- 


REVENUE    SYSTEM-FIRST    TARIFF.  99 

ings  of  iron,  anchors,  tin  and  pewter  ware.      Upon  all  CHAPTER 
other  articles,  including  manufactures  of  wool,  cotton,  ... 

and  linen,  five  per  cent,  ad  valorem  was  to  be  charged,  1789. 
except  on  saltpeter,  tin,  lead,  old  pewter,  brass,  iron  and 
brass  wire,  copper  in  plates,  wool,  dye-stuffs,  hides,  and 
furs,  to  be  free  of  duty.  It  was  provided  in  a  subse- 
quent act  that  in  ail  cases  of  duties  ad  valorem,  the  value 
should  be  ascertained  by  adding  ten  per  cent.,  or,  if  the 
goods  came  from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  or  beyond, 
twenty  per  cent,  to  the  cost  at  the  place  of  exportation. 
For  the  encouragement  of  domestic  shipping,  when  the 
goods  were  imported  in  American  vessels,  a  tenth  part 
of  the  duties  was  to  be  remitted.  Upon  all  goods  re-ex- 
ported within  twelve  months  from  the  date  of  importa- 
tion, a  drawback  was  to  be  allowed  of  the  whole  amount 
of  duties,  one  per  cent,  being  deducted.  The  act  was 
to  go  into  effect  from  and  after  the  first  of  August. 

The  Tonnage  Act  imposed  a  duty  of  six  cents  per 
ton  upon  all  vessels  American  built  and  owned  entering 
any  American  port  from  any  foreign  country.  Upon 
vessels  American  built,  but  owned  abroad,  the  duty  was 
thirty  cents  per  ton,  and  fifty  cents  upon  all  other  ves- 
sels.  American  fishing  and  coasting  vessels  were  to  pay 
but  once  a  year ;  but  foreign  vessels,  if  employed  in  the 
coasting  trade,  from  which  it  was  not  thought  expedient 
entirely  to  exclude  them,  were  to  pay  a  new  tonnage 
duty  upon  every  entry. 

For  the  due  collection  of  these  duties,  the  whole  coast 
of  the  United  States  was  divided  by  another  act  into  col- 
lection districts,  to  the  number  of  about  severity.  The 
more  important  districts  were  to  have  three  principal 
officers:  a  collector,  to  have,  by  himself  or  his  deputy,  the 
general  superintendence  of  the  entry  and  clearance  of 
vessels,  the  receipt  of  duties,  and  the  appointment  of  all 


100  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

CHAPTER  inferior  officers,  such  as  weighers,  gangers,  measurers. 
'  and  inspectors  ;  a  naval  officer,  to  act  as  a  check  upon  the. 
1789.  collector,  and  in  that  capacity  to  countersign  all  docu- 
ments ;  and  a  surveyor,  whose  duty  it  was  to  superin- 
tend the  inferior  officers,  and  to  place  an  inspector  on 
board  all  vessels  as  soon  as  they  arrived,  charged  tc 
ascertain  the  quantities  of  goods  on  board  on  which  du- 
ties were  payable,  and  to  allow  none  to  be  landed  with- 
out a  permit.  The  less  important  districts  had  a  collect- 
or and  surveyor,  and  the  least  important  a  collector  only. 
Masters  of  vessels  arriving  from  foreign  ports  were 
required  to  deliver  to  the  first  custom-house  officer  com- 
ing on  board  two  manifests  or  written  statements  of  the 
cargo,  with  the  names  of  the  consignees.  They  were 
also  required  to  enter  their  vessels  at  the  custom-house 
within  forty-eight  hours  after  their  arrival,  and  to  swear 
to  the  truth  of  the  manifest ;  nor  might  any  goods  be 
landed,  except  in  open  day  and  with  a  permit,  under 
pain  of  forfeiture.  To  obtain  a  permit,  the  consignee 
must  enter  the  goods  at  the  custom-house,  under  oath, 
and  pay  the  duties.  All  tonnage  duties  and  all  amounts 
of  fifty  dollars  or  less  were  to  be  paid  in  cash.  When 
the  duties  exceeded  that  sum,  four  months  credit  was 
allowed  on  imports  from  the  West  Indies ;  six  months 
on  other  goods,  and  in  the  case  of  Madeira  wine,  twelve 
months  credit.  False  entries,  and  all  other  attempts  at 
evasion  of  duties,  were  punishable  with  forfeiture,  and 
false  swearing  by  fine  and  imprisonment.  This  system 
of  collection,  except  the  credit  on  duties,  was  mainly  de- 
rived from  the  usages  of  the  old  royal  and  recent  state 
custom-houses,  and,  with  some  slight  modifications  in 
the  details,  and  the  abolition  of  the  credit  system,  still 
continues  in  force.  To  aid  the  provisions  of  this  act, 
the  merchants  of  all  the  principal  ports  entered  into  as- 


TRADE    AND    NAVIGATION.  1Q1 

sociations  for   the  prevention   of  smuggling ;    and   the  CHAPTEB 
revenue  system  was  found  to  work  much  more  easily,        ' 
and  proved  more  productive  than  had  been  expected.         1789, 

A  fourth  act  relating  to  trade  and  navigation  pro- 
vided for  the  registration  of  all  American  vessels  en- 
gaged in  foreign  commerce,  and  the  enrollment  of  those 
employed  in  the  fisheries  and  coasting  trade,  except  those 
under  twenty  tons  burden,  which  were  to  have  a  license. 
This  was  with  the  view  of  ascertaining,  not  the  tonnage 
only,  but  the  ownership  and  the  American  character  of  the 
vessels,  an  authenticated  copy  of  the  register,  which  the 
vessel  carried  with  her,  serving  for  that  purpose  both  at 
home  and  abroad.  On  every  change  of  ownership  a  new 
register  was  required,  without  which  the  legal  title  did 
not  pass.  By  the  same  act  the  coasting-trade  was  regu- 
lated, the  Vessels  employed  in  that  business  being  sub- 
jected, in  entering  and  clearing,  and  in  respect  to  their 
cargoes,  to  restrictions  deemed  necessary  to  prevent  smug- 
gling- 

Another  act  assumed  for  the  United  States  the  sup- 
port of  all  light-houses,  buoys,  beacons,  and  public  piers, 
on  condition  that  within  one  year  the  states  within 
vvhich  they  were  respectively  situated  should  vest  in  the 
United  States  not  only  the  property  in  these  structures, 
with  the  lands  appertaining  to  them,  but  exclusive  juris- 
diction also  within  their  circuit,  reserving,  however,  the 
right  of  the  state  to  serve  civil  and  criminal  process 
therein.  Such  cessions,  under  a  provision  in  the  Con- 
stitution to  that  effect,  have  ever  since  been  uniformly 
required  in  case  of  all  light-houses,  forts,  arsenals,  dock- 
yards, and  other  structures  erected  for  the  use  of  the 
United  States. 

Having  thus  made  provision  for  collecting  a  revenue — 
indeed,  before  all  these  bills  were  perfected — the  House 


102  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  turned  its  attention  to  the  reorganization  of  the  execu- 
'  tive  departments.  A  Department  of  Foreign  Affairs  was 
1789.  first  established — a  mere  continuation  of  the  old  Conti- 
May  20.  nental  department  of  that  name  ;  but  after  the  failure 
of  repeated  attempts  by  Yining  of  Delaware  to  establish 
a  separate  department  for  Home  Affairs,  these  two  serv- 
ices were  combined ;  and  by  a  subsequent  act  of  the  same 
session,  the  Department  of  Foreign  Affairs  became  the 
Department  of  State,  having  charge  not  only  of  all  for- 
eign negotiations  and  of  all  the  papers  connected  there- 
with, but  the  custody  also,  as  well  of  all  the  papers  and 
documents  of  the  late  Continental  Congress,  as  of  all  en- 
grossed acts  and  resolutions  of  the  new  government  hav- 
ing the  sanction  of  law ;  also  the  ensealing  of  all  com- 
missions for  civil  affairs,  the  seal  adopted  by  the  late 
Continental  Congress  being  still  continued  in  use.  Six- 
ty years  elapsed  before  Vining's  plan  was  carried  out,  by 
the  transfer  of  Home  Affairs  to  a  separate  department. 

The  Treasury  Department  was  reorganized  substan- 
tially on  the  plan  adopted  by  the  Continental  Congress 
in  1781  ;  but  the  title  of  its  head  was  changed  from 
Superintendent  of  Finance  to  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury. It  was  made  the  duty  of  this  officer  to  digest 
plans  for  the  improvement  and  management  of  the  rev- 
enue, and  for  the  support  of  the  public  credit ;  to  pre- 
pare and  report  estimates  of  revenue  and  expenditure; 
to  superintend  the  collection  of  the  revenue  ;  to  decide 
upon  the  form  of  stating  accounts  ;  to  execute  such  serv- 
ices relative  to  the  sales  of  the  public  lands  as  might  be 
required  of  him  by  law  ;  to  grant  warrants  on  the  treas- 
ury for  all  appropriations  made  by  law  ;  and  to  report  in 
person  or  writmg,  as  might  be  required,  to  either  house 
of  Congress,  as  to  all  matters  referred  to  him  or  apper- 
taining to  his  office. 


EXECUTIVE    DEPARTMENTS. 

The  secretary  was  allowed  an  assistant,  to  be  appoint-  OHAPPEB 
ed  by  himself.  The  other  subordinate  officers  of  the  de-  ' 
partment  were  a  Controller,  an  Auditor,  a  Register,  and  a  1789. 
Treasurer.  To  the  Controller  belonged  the  final  decision 
upon  the  legality  of  all  claims  on  the  government,  and 
the  superintendence  of  all  legal  proceedings  to  recover 
debts  due  to  the  United  States.  It  was  his  duty  also  to 
countersign  all  warrants  on  the  treasury,  without  which 
they  had  no  validity.  To  the  Auditor  belonged  the  exam- 
ination of  vouchers  ;  it  being  his  duty  to  ascertain  and 
certify  to  the  formal  correctness  of  all  accounts  against 
the  government.  It  was  the  duty  of  the  Register  to  pre- 
serve these  vouchers  ;  to  keep  an  account  of  all  receipts, 
expenditures,  and  debts,  and  to  record  all  warrants  on  the 
treasury  as  a  preliminary  to  their  payment.  The  Treas- 
urer had  the  custody  of  the  moneys  of  the  United  States, 
and  was  to  receive  and  pay  them  out  according  to  the 
forms  prescribed  by  law.  By  the  regulations  of  the 
treasury,  as  thus  organized,  no  public  money  could  be 
paid  out  except  under  an  appropriation  made  by  Con- 
gress, and  after  a  sanction  of  the  claim  as  to  its  amount 
and  validity,  first  by  the  Auditor,  and  then  by  the  Con- 
troller, and  on  a  warrant  signed  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  countersigned  by  the  Controller,  and  recorded 
by  the  Register.  All  receipts  for  money  paid  into  the 
treasury,  in  order  to  be  valid,  must  be  indorsed  on  war- 
rants signed  by  the  Secretary,  countersigned  by  the  Con- 
troller, and  recorded  by  the  Register.  This  system,  ex- 
tended by  the  appointment  of  additional  controllers  and 
auditors,  having  charge  of  particular  classes  of  accounts, 
and  of  a  Solicitor  of  the  Treasury,  to  superintend  legal 
proceedings,  still  remains  in  force  very  much  as  origin- 
ally established.  All  officers  of  the  treasury  were  spe- 
cially prohibited  from  being  concerned  in  any  commerce 


104  HISTORY    OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  or  navigation,  or  in  the  purchase  of  public  .ands  or  se. 

curities,  state  or  national. 

1789.  The  Department  of  War  was  also  reorganized,  very 
much  on  the  old  footing,  the  secretary  of  that  depart- 
ment to  have  the  superintendence  of  naval  as  well  as  of 
military  affairs.  Of  the  old  Continental  navy  not  a  ves- 
sel remained ;  the  existing  military  establishment,  a 
regiment  of  foot  and  a  battalion  of  artillery,  were  con- 
tinued in  service  upon  the  terms  and  pay  fixed  by  the 
late  Continental  Congress,  and  pay  and  subsistence  at 
the  same  rates  were  to  be  allowed  to  such  militia  as  the 
president  might  call  into  service  for  defense  of  the  front- 
iers. Provision  was  also  made  for  the  invalid  pensions 
due  under  the  regulations  of  the  Continental  Congress, 
and  hitherto  payable  by  the  states. 

The  reorganization  of  the  general  post-office  was  de- 
layed till  more  complete  information  could  be  obtained, 
the  establishment  being,  meanwhile,  continued  as  it  then 
stood.  Franklin,  the  first  Continental  postmaster  gener- 
al, bad  been  succeeded  in  that  office  by  his  son-in-law 
Richard  Bache,  and  he  by  Ebenezer  Hazard,  who  still 
held  it. 

As  introductory  to  the  passage  of  these  acts,  the  gen- 
eral system  of  the  executive  departments  had  been  con- 
sidered by  the  House  in  Committee  of  the  Whole.  The 
Department  of  the  Treasury  being  under  consideration, 
Gerry,  who  had  acted  in  the  earlier  days  of  the  Conti- 
nental Congress  as  the  head  of  the  Committee  on  the 
Treasury,  was  very  strenuous  for  a  board  of  commission- 
ers instead  of  a  single  secretary.  He  seemed  to  be 
jealous  lest  the  heads  of  departments  should  outshine 
the  Senate,  make  themselves  necessary  to  the  president, 
and  establish  a  hateful  oligarchy.  Wadsworth  and 
Boudinot,  whose  practical  experience  entitled  their  opin- 


POWER    OF    REMOVALS    FROM    OFFICE.  i  Q  5 

ions  to  great  weight,  were  very  positive  as  to  the  supe-  CHAPTER 

riority  of  a   single  office   over  a  board   in  all   the  great ___ 

points  of  decision,  promptitude,  responsibility,  and  econo-  1789. 
my.  They  drew  a  very  strong  contrast  between  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  Continental  finances  by  Robert  Mor- 
ris and  by  the  various  treasury  boards,  his  predecessors, 
whose  negligence  and  incapacity,  so  Wadsworth  affirmed, 
had  doubled  the  public  debt.  According  to  Wadsworth, 
the  clamor  raised  against  Morris  had  chiefly  originated 
with  those  whose  services  he  had  dispensed  with,  or  whose 
profits  out  of  the  public  he  had  curtailed.  Gerry's 
scheme  found  but  very  little  support ;  yet  a  good  deal  of 
jealousy  was  felt  of  the  treasury,  and  when  the  bill  estab- 
lishing the  department  came  to  pass,  special  exception 
was  taken  to  the  clause  authorizing  the  secretary  to 
digest  and  report  plans  for  the  improvement  and  man- 
agement of  the  revenue,  as  if  it  were  an  infringement 
of  the  exclusive  power  of  the  House  to  originate  money 
bills. 

A  much  more  doubtful  point  was  raised  on  a  motion 
to  declare  the  heads  of  the  departments  removable  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  president.  It  was  maintained  by  Smith  of 
South  Carolina  and  others,  that,  as  the  Constitution  made 
no  provision  for  removals  from  office  except  by  impeach- 
ment, all  officers,  unless  a  limit  were  fixed  by  law  to  the 
duration  of  their  offices,  would  hold  during  good  behav- 
ior. Others  thought  that,  as  the  power  of  removal  nat- 
urally belonged  to  the  power  that  appointed,  in  all  cases 
where  the  consent  of  the  Senate  was  necessary  for  an  ap- 
pointment, their  concurrence  would  also  be  required  for 
removal.  The  power  of  removal  in  the  president  alone 
was  represented  as  exceedingly  dangerous,  making  him 
little  short  of  a  monarch,  and  all  the  public  officers  his 
mere  creatures.  These  views  were  urged  by  Bland  and 


106      HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  White  of  Virginia,  Gerry,  Huntington  of  Connecticut, 
Livermore  of  New  Hampshire,  Jackson,  and  others 
1789.  Madison.  Benson,  Goodlme,  Lawrence,  and  Vining  main- 
tained that,  as  the  responsible  executive  head  of  the  gov- 
ernment, the  president  had,  and  ought  to  have,  the  con- 
stitutional  power  of  removing  all  executive  officers  at 
pleasure.  The  bill  for  establishing  the  Department  of 
Foreign  Affairs  being  under  consideration,  this  debate 
was  earnestly  renewed,  and  was  kept  up  for  four  days. 
Smith  of  South  Carolina  now  joined  the  party  who  in- 
sisted on  the  right  of  the  Senate  to  be  consulted  on  the 
question  of  removals.  Sherman  was  inclined  to  the 
same  opinion  ;  but  as  the  president  was  the  head  of  the 
executive,  the  heads  of  the  departments  might,  in  that 
view,  be  considered  as  "  inferior  officers,"  and  their  ap- 
pointment and  removal  subject,  therefore,  under  the 
Constitution,  to  be  regulated  by  law.  He  was,  how- 
ever, decidedly  opposed  to  giving  the  president  the  power 
of  removal.  Ames,  Boudinot,  Baldwin,  and  Scott,  sec- 
onded by  those  who  had  taken  the  same  side  in  the  for- 
mer debate,  insisted  on  the  president's  constitutional 
right ;  and  they  dwelt  with  great  emphasis  on  the  abso- 
lute necessity  of  such  a  power,  if  the  president  were  to 
be  held  responsible  for  the  execution  of  the  laws.  "  The 
decision  now  made,"  said  Madison,  «  will  become  the 
permanent  exposition  of  the  Constitution,  and  on  that 
permanent  exposition  will  depend  the  genius  and  char- 
acter of  the  whole  government." 

It  was  suggested  by  those  opposed  to  the  president's 
power  of  removal  that  a  suspending  power  during  the 
vacation  of  the  Senate  might  answer  all  necessary  pur- 
poses. But  where,  it  was  asked,  did  those  who  denied 
the  president's  constitutional  power  to  remove  discover 
the  constitutional  power  to  suspend  ?  That  power,  be- 


POWER    OF    REMOVALS  FROM    OFFICE.  1Q  7 

sides,  was  totally  insufficient.      How  awkward  would  be  CHAPTEB 

the  predicament  of  the  president  to  have  officers  forced 

back  upon  him  by  the  Seriate  whom  he  had  suspended,  1789. 
and  whom  they  might  still  refuse  to  remove. 

Sedgwick  was  inclined  to  think  that  as  Congress  had 
the  power  of  creating  these  offices,  it  might  also  have, 
as  an  incident,  the  power  of  fixing  the  period  of  the  of- 
fice and  the  method  of  removal.  That  power,  however, 
for  reasons  of  expediency,  he  was  strongly  inclined  to 
vest  in  the  president.  Allowing  that  the  power  of  re- 
moval appertained  to  the  power  of  appointing,  that  did 
not  sustain  the  claim  set  up  for  the  Senate.  The  advice 
and  consent  of  the  Senate  was  made  necessary  as  a  pre- 
liminary, but  the  power  of  appointing  was  in  the  presi- 
dent alone. 

It  was  suggested  by  Scott,  in  answer  to  those  who 
exaggerated  the  danger  of  giving  the  power  of  removal 
to  the  president,  "  that  the  president,  above  all  the  offi- 
cers of  the  government,  was  justly  to  be  denominated 
the  chosen  man  of  the  people.  He  was  elected  by  the 
voice  of  the  whole  Union.  The  senators,  on  the  other 
hand,  were  the  representatives  of  the  state  sovereignties, 
the  very  bodies  which  stood  most  in  the  way  of  the  ef- 
fectual operation  of  the  federal  government.  How,  then, 
could  the  Senate  be  held  up  as  more  nearly  related  to 
the  people  than  the  president,  when  no  other  man  in  the 
United  States  held  office  by  the  concurrent  voice  of  the 
whole  people  ?" 

The  House  refused,  by  a  vote  of  thirty-four  to  twen- 
ty, to  strike  out  the  clause  giving  the  power  of  removal 
to  the  president.  But  afterward  another  difficulty  was 
raised  ;  for,  if  the  president  had  this  power  under  the 
Constitution,  how  could  the  House  undertake  to  confer 
it  upon  him  ?  To  avoid  this  difficulty,  Benson  proposed 


108  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  to  strike  out  the  clause  in  question,  and  to  provide  in 

another  section  that  whenever  the  secretary  "should  be  TO- 

1789.  moved  by  the  president,"  the  custody  of  the  papers  should 
devolve  on  the  chief  clerk.  Much  to  the  chagrin  of  the 
opposition,  this  recognition  of  the  president's  power  of 
removal  prevailed,  and  the  bill,  though  denounced  by 
Sumter,  who  had  just  taken  his  seat,  as  subversive  of 
the  Constitution  and  destructive  of  the  liberties  of  the 
people,  passed  to  be  enacted  by  a  vote  of  twenty-nine  tc 
twenty-two. 

In  the  Senate,  this  legislative  exposition  of  the  powo 
of  the  president  as  to  removals  from  office  was  carried 
only  by  the  casting  vote  of  the  vice-president.  Though, 
like  all  other  powers,  liable  to  serious  abuses,  this  right 
of  removal  seems  essential  to  that  concentration  of  ex- 
ecutive authority,  without  which  the  action  of  the  gov- 
ernment might  constantly  be  liable  to  be  defeated  by  its 
own  officers.  Loud  complaints  have  occasionally  been 
made  of  its  exercise,  but  the  right  itself  has  never  se- 
riously been  called  in  question. 

The  office  of  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  which  it  was 
necessary  should  be  filled  at  once,  was  given  to  Alexan 
der  Hamilton,  of  whose  penetrating  judgment  and  su- 
perior executive  abilities  the  president  had  enjoyed  am- 
ple experience,  while  employing  his  services  as  an  aid- 
de-camp  during  the  Revolutionary  war.  Since  that  period 
Hamilton  had  risen  to  the  head  of  the  New  York  bar, 
adding  thus  to  his  natural  sagacity  and  his  previous  ac- 
quirements that  knowledge  of  the  law  so  essential  to  his 
new  position.  Knox  was  continued  in  office  as  Secreta- 
ry of  War.  The  Department  of  State  remained  for  the 
present  unfilled,  but  Jay  continued  to  discharge  the  du- 
ties of  it. 

While  the  House  was  employed  on  the  Revenue  Bills, 


'FEDERAL    JUDICIARY  1Q9 

the  Senate  had  taken  in  hand  the  important  matter  of  CHAPTEK 
the  Federal  Judiciary.  A  bill  on  that  subject,  drafted 
by  Ellsworth,  was,  after  some  amendments,  concurred  1789. 
in  by  the  House.  By  the  provisions  of  this  act,  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States  was  to  consist  of  a 
chief  justice  and  five  associate  judges,  to  hold  two  ses- 
sions annually  at  the  seat  of  government.  The  jurisdic- 
tion of  this  court,  so  the  Constitution  required,  was,  ex- 
cept in  one  or  two  specified  cases,  entirely  appellate. 
For  the  trial  of  cases  in  the  first  instance,  two  sets  of 
tribunals  were  instituted,  called  District  Courts  and 
Circuit  Courts. 

Each  state  was  made  a  district,  as  were  also  Ken- 
tucky and  Maine  ;  each  district  to  have  a  judge  of  its 
own,  to  hold  four  courts  annually,  besides  such  special 
ones  as  might  be  found  convenient.  These  district 
courts  had  cognizance  of  all  civil  cases  of  admiralty  and 
maritime  jurisdiction,  including  cases  of  seizure  under 
the  revenue  laws,  and  of  all  suits  for  penalties  and  for- 
feitures under  the  laws  of  the  United  States.  Their 
jurisdiction  also  extended  to  all  lesser  crimes  against  the 
United  States ;  and,  concurrently  with  the  state  courts, 
to  all  suits  to  which  the  United  States  were  a  party,  and 
the  matter  in  dispute,  exclusive  of  costs,  exceeded  one 
hundred  dollars  in  value.  All  trials  of  questions  of  fact, 
except  in  civil  cases  of  admiralty  and  maritime  jurisdic- 
tion, were  to  be  by  jury.  These  district  courts  consti- 
tuted, in  fact,  the  revenue  courts  of  the  federal  govern- 
ment, being  the  successors  of  the  old  royal  admiralty 
courts,  after  which  they  were  in  a  great  measure  mod- 
eled, and  whose  forms  of  practice  t  ley  continued  to  follow. 

The  districts,  except  those  of  Maine  and  Kentucky, 
the  judges  of  which  were  to  have,  in  addition  to  their 
other  powers,  all  the  authority  of  circuit  courts,  were 


HO  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  grouped  together  into  three  circuits.  Circuit  courts 
were  to  be  held  semi-annually  in  each  district  (besides 
1789,  special  courts  when  necessary  for  the  trial  of  criminal 
cases),  by  any  two  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  with 
whom  was  also  to  sit  the  judge  of  the.  district,  any  two 
of  the  three  to  constitute  a  quorum.  These  courts  were 
to  have  jurisdiction,  concurrent  with  the  state  courts,  of 
all  suits  of  a  civil  nature  at  common  law  or  in  equity 
between  citizens  of  different  states,  or  to  which  the  Unit- 
ed  States  or  an  alien  was  a  party,  the  matter  in  dispute 
exceeding  five  hundred  dollars  in  value.  In  criminal 
matters  their  jurisdiction  was  to  be  concurrent  with  that 
of  the  district  courts,  and  exclusive  as  to  all  higher 
crimes.  They  were  also  to  entertain  appeals  in  all  cases 
decided  in  the  district  courts,  where  the  matter  in  dis- 
pute, if  it  belonged  to  the  admiralty  jurisdiction,  amount- 
ed to  three  hundred  dollars  in  value,  or  to  fifty  dollars, 
exclusive  of  costs,  in  ordinary  civil  actions.  Juries,  in 
all  cases  where  they  were  needed,  whether  in  the  circuit 
or  district  courts,  were  to  be  summoned  in  accordance 
with  the  state  usage  of  the  district  in  which  the  court 
was  held. 

An  appeal  lay,  as  to  all  points  of  law,  in  all  cases  where 
the  matter  in  dispute  amounted  to  two  thousand  dollars, 
from  the  circuit  courts  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Unit- 
ed States ;  and  to  this  court  was  also  given  authority, 
in  certain  specified  cases,  to  send  writs  of  error  to  the 
state  courts,  and  to  revise,  and,  if  error  appeared,  to  re- 
verse their  decisions.  But  the  only  cases  in  which  this 
high  power  could  be  exercised  were  those  in  which  had 
been  brought  in  question  the  validity  of  a  treaty  or  of 
a  statute  of  the  United  States,  or  the  validity  of  acts 
claimed  to  have  been  done  by  virtue  of  such  treaty  or 
statute,  and  the  decision  had  been  against  their  valid- 


FEDERAL   JUDICIARY.  m 

ity;  or  in  which  the  validity  of  a  state  law  had  been  CHAPTER 
questioned  on  the  ground  of  repugnancy  to  the  Consti-         ' 
tution,  treaties,  or  laws  of  the  United  States,  and  the  1789. 
decision  had  been  in  favor  of  its  validity  ;   or  in  which 
a  title,  right,  or  privilege  had  been  claimed  under  a  treaty 
or  law  of  the  United  States,  or  under  the  United  States 
Constitution,  and  the  decision  of  the  state  court  had  been 
against  such  right,  title,  or  privilege.      Nothing,  howev- 
er, could  be  a  subject  of  re-examination  in  such  cases 
except  what  appeared  on  the  face  of  the  record  bearing 
directly  on  one  or  other  of  the  above  points. 

The  appointment  of  their  own  clerks  was  given  to  the 
courts.  An  officer  was  to  be  appointed  by  the  president 
for  each  district,  in  the  nature  of  a  sheriff,  but  called 
a  Marshal,  to  attend  on  the  courts  when  in  session,  and 
authorized  to  serve  all  processes  and  to  appoint  as  many 
deputies  as  might  be  found  convenient.  A  District  At- 
torney, to  act  for  the  United  States  in  all  cases  in  which 
they  might  be  interested,  was  also  to  be  appointed  for 
each  district.  It  was  to  be  the  duty  of  the  Attorney 
General  not  only  to  appear  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  in  all  cases  in  which  the  United  States 
were  a  party,  but  also  to  give  his  opinion,  when  required 
by  the  president  or  requested  by  the  heads  of  depart- 
ments, upon  any  question  of  law  in  which  the  govern- 
ment might  be  interested. 

The  judiciary  system  thus  established  remains,  but 
with  some  modifications,  still  (1853)  in  force,  the  circuits, 
increased  to  nine,  being  now  attended  by  a  single  judge 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  the  circuit  courts  being  some- 
times held  by  the  district  judge  alone,  whose  criminal 
jurisdiction  in  his  own  court  has  also  been  largely  in- 
creased— a  change  the  more  questionable,  since,  by  the 
strangely  anomalous  construction  put  upon  the  Judiciary 


£12  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  Act,  no  point  of  criminal  law,  except  in  the  accidenta 

'        cases  of  disagreements  on  the  bench  of  the  circuit  courts. 

1789    can  be  carried  before  the  Supreme  Court;   thus  leaving 

many  questions  involving  the  highest  political  rights  to 

the  decision  of  inferior  tribunals. 

Conforming  to  the  strong  and  prevailing  sentiment  of 
Virginia,  and  to  the  pledges  which  he  had  found  it  neces- 
sary to  give,  Madison  had  early  called  attention  to  the 
subject  of  amending  the  Constitution.  The  amendments 
already  proposed,  in  an  official  or  semi-official  form,  were 
sufficiently  numerous.  The  minority  in  the  Pennsylva- 
nia Convention  had  proposed  fourteen ;  the  Massachusetts 
Convention,  nine  ;  the  Maryland  minority,  twenty-eight ; 
the  South  Carolina  Convention,  four ;  the  New  Hamp- 
shire Convention,  twelve;  the  Virginia  Convention,  twen- 
ty ;  that  of  New  York,  thirty-two  ;  besides  separate  Bills 
of  Rights  proposed  by  Virginia  and  New  York,  the  one  in 
twenty,  the  other  in  twenty-four  articles.  The  Harris- 
burg  Convention,  held  in  response  to  the  New  York  cir-' 
cular,  had  suggested  twelve  amendments ;  the  Conven- 
tion of  North  Carolina,  while  giving  their  conditional 
ratification,  twenty-six.  But  the  whole  number  of  sep- 
arate propositions  was  by  no  means  so  great  as  this  enu- 
meration might  lead  one  to  suppose.  The  nine  Massa- 
chusetts propositions  had  been  repeated  by  New  Hamp- 
shire ;  the  twenty  of  Virginia  by  North  Carolina ;  and  in 
many  other  cases,  two,  three,  or  more  states  had  agreed 
in  suggestions  identical  or  very  similar. 

The  amendments  originally  suggested  by  Massachu- 
setts were,  1st.  That  all  powers  not  expressly  delegated 
to  Congress  should  be  reserved  to  the  states  :  recom- 
mended also  by  Virginia,  South  Carolina,  North  Caro 
Una,  and  hy  the  minorities  in  Pennsylvania  and  Mary 
land,  and  in  a  modified  form,  afterward  sanctioned  b) 


AMENDMENTS    OF    THE    CONSTITUTION.         H3 

Congress  and  adopted  by  the  states.  2d.  That  the  ratio  CHAPTER 
of  representation  in  the  Lower  House  should  continue  at  ' 
one  for  thirty  thousand  till  the  number  of  representatives  1789. 
amounted  to  two  hundred  :  recommended  also  by  Vir- 
ginia, North  Carolina,  and  New  York.  3d.  That  Con- 
gress should  exercise  the  power  of  regulating  by  law  the 
election  of  senators  and  representatives  only  as  to  those 
states  neglecting  to  make  the  necessary  provisions  : 
substantially  recommended  by  Virginia,  South  Carolina, 
and  New  York.  4th.  That  no  direct  tax  should  be  lev- 
ied till  the  resources  of  duties  on  imports  and  excise 
should  be  exhausted,  and  then  only  by  way  of  requisi- 
tion in  the  first  place,  Congress,  however,  to  assess  and 
levy,  with  interest,  the  quota  of  any  delinquent  state : 
substantially  recommended  by  South  Carolina,  Virginia, 
and  New  York.  5th.  That  Congress  should  erect  no 
companies  with  exclusive  privileges  of  commerce :  rec- 
ommended by  New  York  and  South  Carolina.  6th  and 
7th.  That  no  person  be  tried  for  any  crime  (cases  in 
the  military  and  naval  service  excepted)  without  previous 
indictment  by  a  grand  jury  ;  and  that,  in  civil  cases,  the 
right  of  trial  by  jury  should  be  preserved  :  recommend- 
ed also  by  Virginia  and  the  Pennsylvania  minority,  and 
both  provisions  presently  incorporated  in  substance  into 
the  amendments  which  were  afterward  ratified.  8th. 
That  the  federal  courts  should  have  no  jurisdiction  of 
suits  between  citizens  of  different  states,  when  the 
amount  in  dispute  did  not  exceed  fifteen  hundred  dol- 
lars. 9th.  That  Congress  should  never  consent  to  the 
acceptance  by  any  federal  officer  of  any  title  or  office 
from  any  foreign  power  :  recommended  also  by  New 
York. 

The  amendments  proposed  by  Virginia,  in  which  she 
had  not  been  anticipated  by  Massachusetts,  were  as  fol- 
IV.— H 


114  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  lows  i  1st.  That  members  of  Congress,  during  the  period 
'  for  which  they  were  chosen,  should  be  disqualified  to  hold 
1789.  any  federal  office.  2d.  That  the  journals  of  Congress, 
with  a  regular  account  of  receipts  and  expenditures, 
should  be  published  annually  :  recommended  also  by 
New  York.  3d.  That  no  treaty  ceding  the  territorial 
rights  or  claims  of  the  United  States,  or  any  of  them, 
or  any  right  of  fishing  in  American  seas,  or  of  naviga- 
ting American  rivers,  should  be  ratified  without  the  con- 
currence of  three  fourths  of  both  houses  of  Congress. 
4th.  That  no  navigation  law,  or  laws  relating  to  com- 
merce, should  be  passed  without  the  consent  of  two 
thirds  of  the  members  present.  Oth.  That  no  standing 
army  or  regular  troops  should  be  raised  or  kept  up  in 
time  of  peace,  without  a  like  two  thirds  vote  :  recom- 
mended also  by  New  York,  by  the  Maryland  minority, 
and  by  New  Hampshire,  which  state  proposed  to  require 
in  such  cases  a  vote  of  three  fourths.  6th.  That  no  sol- 
dier should  be  enlisted  for  more  than  four  years,  except 
in  time  of  war,  and  then  only  for  the  war  :  originally 
proposed  by  the  Maryland  minority.  7th.  That  upon  the 
neglect  of  Congress  to  provide  for  arming  and  organising 
the  militia,  each  state  might  act  for  itself.  8th.  That 
the  exclusive  legislation  of  Congress  over  the  Fedeial  Dis- 
trict should  extend  only  to  regulations  respecting  police 
and  good  government.  9th.  That  the  same  person  should 
not  be  allowed  to  hold  the  office  of  president  more  than 
eight  years  in  sixteen.  10th.  That  the  federal  judiciary 
power  should  not  extend  to  cases  originating  before  tho 
ratification  of  the  Constitution,  except  territorial  dis- 
putes between  states,  disputes  as  to  lands  claimed  under 
grants  by  different  states,  and  suits  for  debts  due  the 
United  States — an  amendment  carefully  contrived  to  ex- 
clude suits  by  British  creditors,  llth.  That  after  the 


AMENDMENTS    OF    THE    CONSTITUTION.         H  5 

first  Congress,  no  future  Congress  should  have  power  to  CHAPTER 
fix  its  own  compensation ;  laws  on  that  subject  not  to  ' 
go  into  effect  till  an  election  had  intervened  :  recorn-  1781). 
mended  also  by  New  York.  12th.  That  some  tribunal 
other  than  the  Senate  be  provided  for  trying  the  impeach- 
ments of  senators.  13th.  That  the  salaries  of  judges 
should  not  be  increased  or  diminished  during  their  con- 
tinuance in  office,  except  at  stated  periods  of  seven  years. 
The  propositions  originating  in  New  York  were,  1st. 
A  prohibition  to  impose  any  tax  of  excise,  except  on 
domestic  spirits.  2d.  Disability  to  be  members  of  Con- 
gress, except  on  the  part  of  natural-born  citizens,  or 
persons  naturalized  prior  to  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, or  who  had  held  commissions  in  the  Continental 
service  during  the  late  war.  3d.  A  vote  of  two  thirds  to 
be  required  in  both  houses  to  borrow  money  or  to  de- 
clare war.  4th.  The  Habeas  Corpus  Act  riot  to  be  sus- 
pended for  a  longer  period  than  six  months,  or  twenty 
days  after  the  next  meeting  of  Congress.  5th.  The  ex- 
clusive jurisdiction  of  Congress  over  the  Federal  District 
not  to  be  so  exercised  as  to  exempt  the  inhabitants  from 
paying  the  like  taxes  and  duties  with  the  rest  of  the  peo- 
ple, or  to  exempt  any  one  from  arrest  for  crimes  com- 
mitted or  debts  contracted  out  of  the  district.  6th.  The 
like  jurisdiction  over  forts,  arsenals,  &c.,  not  to  prevent 
the  extension  over  them  of  the  civil  and  criminal  laws 
of  the  states  in  which  they  might  be  situated,  except  as 
to  persons  in  the  service  of  the  United  States,  and  not  as 
to  them  so  far  as  related  to  crimes  committed  out  of  such 
places.  7th.  Both  houses  of  Congress  to  sit  with  open 
doors,  unless  the  business  might  require  secrecy,  the 
yeas  and  nays  to  be  taken  and  recorded  at  the  request 
of  two  members.  8th,  9th,  and  10th.  The  state  Legis- 
latures to  he  entitled  to  recall  their  senators  at  pleasure 


116  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  and  to  elect  others ;  the  temporary  right  of  the  state  ex« 
....  ecutives  to  fill  vacancies,  to  be  taken  away,  and  no  person 

1789.  to  hold  the  place  of  senator  more  than  six  years  in  twelve, 
llth.  The  power  of  Congress  to  pass  bankrupt  laws  tc 
extend  only  to  merchants  and  traders,  the  states  to  re- 
tain the  power  of  passing  laws  far  the  relief  of  other  in- 
solvents-. 12th.  No  person  to  be  eligible  to  the  office  of 
president  for  a  third  time.  13th  and  14th.  The  par- 
doning power  not  to  be  exercised  without  the  consent  of 
Congress,  nor  the  president,  without  like  consent,  ever 
to  command  an  army  in  the  field.  15th.  All  writs,  com- 
missions, letters  patent,  &o.,  to  be  in  the  name  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States.  16th.  The  jurisdiction  of 
the  federal  courts  to  be  only  appellate,  except  in  admi- 
ralty and  maritime  cases.  17th.  In  case  of  impeach- 
ments, the  Senate  to  be  assisted  by  the  judges  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  and  the  chief  jus- 
tices of  the  highest  state  courts.  18th.  Any  person  dis- 
satisfied with  any  judgment  or  decree  of  the  Supreme 
Federal  Court  to  be  entitled  to  a  review  and  re-exam- 
ination of  his  case  by  such  persons  learned  in  the  laws, 
not  less  than  seven,  as  the  president,  with  the  consent  of 
the  Senate,  might  appoint.  19th.  No  judge  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  to  hold  any  other  federal  office.  20th.  The 
jurisdiction  of  the  federal  courts  not  to  extend  to  con- 
troversies respecting  land,  excepting  such  as  might  in* 
volve  questions  of  state  jurisdiction.  21st.  The  militia 
of  no  state  to  be  compelled  to  serve  out  of  the  limits  of 
the  state  for  a  longer  period  than  six  weeks,  without 
the  consent  of  the  state  Legislature.  22d.  All  federal 
officers  to  take  an  oath  not  to  infringe  upon  the  Constitu- 
tion and  rights  of  the  respective  states.  23d.  The  states 
to  be  authorized  to  require  residence  within  the  district 
making  the  choice  as  a  qualification  for  federal  repre- 
sentatives 


AMENDMENTS    OF    THE    CONSTITUTION.         1  ]  7 

The  propositions  peculiar  to  Pennsylvania  were,  1st.  CHAPTEB 

That  Congress  s^Duld  levy  no  taxes  except  duties  on 

imports  and  postage  on  letters.  2d.  That  representatives  1789. 
to  Congress  should  be  elected  annually.  3d.  That  no 
standing  armies  should  be  kept  up  in  time  of  peace,  4th. 
That  the  power  of  organizing,  arming,  and  disciplining 
the  rnilitia  should  remain  with  the  states,  the  federal 
government  to  have  no  power  to  march  any  militia  out 
of  their  own  state,  except  by  consent  of  the  state  au- 
thorities. 5th.  Congress  to  have  no  power  to  pass  game 
.aws.  6th.  To  keep  the  executive  and  legislative  pow- 
srs  entirely  distinct,  a  constitution  council  to  be  erect- 
ed, to  perform  those  functions  of  advising  the  president, 
conferred  by  the  existing  Constitution  on  the  federal 
Senate  :  concurred  in  by  the  Maryland  minority,  who 
proposed  also  that  the  federal  expenses  should  be  appor- 
tioned among  the  states  in  proportion  to  the  number  of 
their  federal  representatives,  and  that  Congress  should 
be  allowed  to  impose  no  capitation  tax :  a  proposition  in 
which  the  New  York  Convention  also  concurred. 

The  New  Hampshire  propositions  were  mainly  bor- 
rowed from  Massachusetts  ;  the  only  suggestions  not  al- 
ready recited  were  two :  one  derived  in  substance  from 
the  Pennsylvania  minority,  that  Congress  should  have 
no  power  to  disarm  any  citizens  except  those  who  were, 
or  had  been,  in  actual  rebellion  ;  the  other,  that  Congress 
should  make  no  laws  touching  religion  or  infringing  the 
rights  of  conscience — a  proposition  contained  also  in  the 
Bills  of  Rights  proposed  by  Virginia  and  New  York,  but 
a  little  remarkable  as  coming  from  New  Hampshire,  in- 
asmuch as  that  state,  by  an  express  provision  of  its  own 
Constitution,  excluded  all  Catholics  from  office. 

North  Carolina  concurred  with  Pennsylvania  in  rec- 
ommending that  no  treaty  in  contravention  of  any  law 


HQ  HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  of  the  United  States  should  be  valid  till  that  law  had  first 
been  repealed.  Suggestions  peculiar  to  that  state  were, 
1789.  that  Congress  should  not  declare  any  state  in  rebellion, 
nor  introduce  foreign  troops  into  the  United  States  except 
by  a  two  thirds  vote  ;  nor  interfere,  either  by  themselves 
or  the  judiciary,  with  any  of  the  states,  as  to  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  paper  money  already  emitted  and  in  circula- 
tion, or  in  liquidating  or  discharging  the  state  debts. 

Such  is  a  summary  of  all  the  amendments  proposed  to 
the  body  of  the  Constitution,  in  any  thing  like  an  official 
shape.  It  has  been  thought  worth  while  to  insert  it  here, 
not  only  as  a  curious  and  authentic  exhibition  of  prevail- 
ing political  opinions,  but  as  establishing  beyond  question 
this  remarkable  and  most  important  fact,  that,  with  all 
the  clamor  raised  by  the  anti-Federalists,  and  the  terror 
which  the  new  system  had  inspired  or  seemed  to  inspire, 
not  one  of  the  amendments  proposed  to  it  was  of  a  vital 
character,  and  that  the  whole  of  them,  if  adopted  in  mass, 
would  not,  in  all  probability,  have  seriously  affected  the 
practical  operation  of  the  new  government,  except  so  far 
as  they  enabled  a  minority,  in  certain  cases,  to  control 
the  action  of  a  majority.  Nobody  proposed  to  interfere 
with  the  great  compromises  on  which  the  whole  system 
was  based,  the  equal  vote  in  the  Senate,  or  the  rule  ot 
apportionment  for  members  of  the  House.  Nobody  pro- 
posed to  alter  the  general  distribution  of  powers  as  ar- 
ranged in  the  Constitution,  unless  the  proposal  of  a  spe- 
cial council  to  perform  the  executive  functions  of  the 
Senate  might  be  viewed  in  that  light.  It  was  not  even 
proposed  to  curtail  the  appointing  power,  the  veto,  or  the 
extensive  authority  vested  generally  in  the  president,  nor 
seriously  to  limit  the  powers  of  Congress  o~  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  federal  courts.  The  proposed  amendments 
were  of  two  sorts  :  first,  general  restrictions  on  the  legis* 


AMENDMENTS    OF    THE    CONSTITUTION.         3^9 

lative  and  judicial  authority,  in  favor  of  natural  justice  CHAPTER 
and  the  personal  rights  of  the  individual — restrictions  set 
out  more  at  length  in  the  Bills  of  Rights  proposed  by  Vir-  1789 
ginia,  New  York,  and  North  Carolina ;  and,  secondly,  par- 
ticular restrictions  as  to  some  matters  of  peculiar  or  local 
interest,  such  as  the  prohibition  to  levy  direct  taxes,  and 
the  two  thirds  vote  for  borrowing  money,  declaring  war, 
ratifying  commercial  treaties,  and  maintaining  standing 
armies.  It  may  hence  be  concluded,  and  this  is  a  mat- 
ter of  great  importance  toward  a  correct  understanding 
of  the  subsequent  history  of  the  United  States,  that  no 
question  of  fundamental  principle  as  to  the  theory  of  gov- 
ernment was  really  in  debate  between  the  Federalists 
and  anti-Federalists,  and  that  the  different  views  they 
took  of  the  new  Constitution  grew  much  more  out  of  dif- 
ferences of  position  and  of  local  and  personal  interest,  than 
out  of  any  differences  of  opinion  as  to  what  ought  to  be 
the  ends  and  functions  of  government  or  the  methods  of 
:.ts  administration.  The  Federalists,  anxious  to  accom- 
plish certain  great  objects — to  consolidate  the  Union,  to 
uphold  the  public  credit,  to  aid  and  encourage  the  national 
commerce,  navigation,  and  manufactures,  to  prevent  pa- 
per issues,  and  to  enforce  the  obligation  of  contracts — 
were  chiefly  intent  upon  securing  a  government  capable 
of  accomplishing  those  objects  ;  and  they  appeared,  there- 
fore, at  the  present  moment,  as  the  special  advocates  of 
power  and  authority.  The  anti-Federalists,  on  the  other 
hand,  alarmed  at  the  idea  of  national  taxes,  fearful  lest 
the  interests  of  agriculture  might  be  sacrificed  to  the 
protection  of  commerce  and  manufactures  ;  not  over-anx- 
ious for  the  payment  of  debts  either  private  or  public, 
and  more  concerned  for  the  interests  of  debtors  than  of 
creditors ;  looked  with  alarm  upon  the  extensive  powers 
/ested  in  the  new  national  government,  and  sought,  by 


120  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  various  petty  cavils  and  particular  restrictions,  to  ham* 
per  an  authority  the  necessity  of  which  they  could  not 
1789.  deny,  at  the  same  time  that  they  dreaded  even  its  legiti- 
mate exercise,  not  to  insist  on  its  possible  abuse.  "  Va 
rious  and  numerous  as  they  appear,"  said  Madison,  in  a 
letter  to  Jefferson  respecting  the  proposed  amendments 
of  the  Constitution,  "  they  certainly  omit  many  of  the 
true  grounds  of  opposition.  The  articles  relating  to  trea- 
ties, to  paper  money,  and  to  contracts,  make  more  ene- 
mies than  all  the  errors  of  the  system,  positive  and  neg- 
ative, put  together."  Jefferson,  at  first,  had  been  a  good 
deal  of  an  anti-Federalist ;  but  ultimately  his  objections 
seem  to  have  been  reduced  to  two,  the  re-elegibility  oi' 
the  executive,  and  the  want  of  a  bill  of  rights.  This 
latter  want  was  in  part  supplied  by  the  amendments 
adopted  ;  the  other  objection  seems  not  to  have  been  very 
permanent,  since  Jefferson  not  only  urged  Washington 
to  stand  as  a  candidate  for  the  second  time,  but  even 
consented  to  a  second  term  of  office  in  his  own  person, 
though  to  his  case  but  few  of  the  arguments  urged  upon 
Washington  would  apply. 

Madison's  proposal  to  take  up  the  subject  of  amend- 
ing the  Constitution  encountered  considerable  resistance 
in  the  House.  Some  members  expressed  themselves  de- 
cidedly opposed  to  all  amendments  till  experience  could 
be  had  of  the  working  of  the  Constitution.  Others  were 
disinclined  to  go  into  the  subject  till  the  government  was 
first  completely  organized.  Madison  urged,  in  reply,  the 
necessity  of  some  speedy  action  to  meet  the  expectation 
and  to  quiet  the  impatience  of  the  numerous  friends  of 
amendments  out  of  doors.  He  wished  by  no  means  to 
go  so  far  as  to  open  a  door  for  reconsidering  the  general 
frame  and  structure  of  the  government ;  but  he  thought 
it  desirablej  both  from  motives  of  policy,  and  because  it 


AMENDMENTS    OF    THE    CONSTITUTION.         J  £  1 

would  be  an  actual  improvement,  to  incorporate  so  many  CIIAPTE? 
of  the  proposed  provisions  for  the  protection  of  personal  ' 
rights  as  might  secure  the  concurrence  of  two  thirds  of  1789. 
both  houses,  and  of  the  Legislatures  of  three  fourths  of 
the  states.  He  introduced  a  series  of  resolutions  em- 
bodying certain  amendments  which  he  thought  of  that 
character  ;  and,  after  some  discussion,  it  was  agreed  to 
refer  them  to  a  committee  of  the  whole.  Previously,  July  21 
however,  to  any  further  discussion,  both  Madison's  reso- 
lutions, and  the  amendments  proposed  by  the  various 
state  Conventions,  were  referred  to  a  special  committee 
of  one  from  each  state.  The  report  of  that  committee  Aug.  13 
coming  up  for  consideration,  the  first  question  that  arose 
was,  In  what  form  should  the  amendments  be  made  ? 
Should  they  be  incorporated  into  the  text  of  the  Consti- 
tution, or  should  they  be  appended  to  it,  as  a  series  of 
distinct  provisions  ?  Sherman  suggested  the  latter  meth- 
od, the  more  feasible  in  the  present  case,  inasmuch  as 
the  articles  proposed  by  the  committee  were  mostly  in 
the  nature  of  a  mere  bill  of  rights,  by  no  means  incon- 
sistent with  the  Constitution  as  it  stood — in  fact,  for 
the  most  part,  implied  by  it.  This  suggestion,  though 
voted  down  at  first,  was  ultimately  adopted.  The  report 
of  the  committee  was  debated  from  time  to  time,  first  in 
Committee  of  the  Whole  and  afterward  in  the  House,  oc- 
casionally with  a  good  deal  of  warmth.  It  was  denounced 
by  Burke  as  not  containing  "  those  solid  and  substantial 
amendments  which  the  people  expected ;"  as,  in  fact, 
« little  better  than  whipped  syllabub,  frothy  and  full  of 
wind,  formed  only  to  please  the  palate;  or  like  a  tub 
thrown  out  to  the  whale,  to  secure  the  freight  of  the 
ship  and  its  peaceful  voyage."  He  noticed  that  on  this 
committee  of  eleven  there  were  no  less  than  five  who  had 
been  members  of  the  Federal  Convention.  Gerry,  who 


122  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  took  a  very  active  part,  complained  of  a  disposition  to 
_____  smother  debate.  The  committee  of  eleven  had  been  got 
1789.  up  lest  "a  free  discussion  should  lay  bare  the  muscles 
and  sinews  of  the  Constitution."  The  only  debate  of 
much  interest  arose  on  a  motion  by  Tucker  to  add  to 
the  proposed  amendment  securing  to  the  people  the  right 
of  peaceably  assembling  together,  the  right  also  "  to  in- 
struct their  representatives."  This  proposal  was  sup- 
ported by  Jackson  and  others,  with  the  understanding, 
however,  that  it  would  not  imply,  on  the  part  of  the  rep- 
resentative, any  obligation  to  obey.  Gerry,  who  was  very 
urgent  for  the  amendment,  seemed  to  look  at  the  matter 
in  the  same  light ;  but  this  idea  was  combated  by  Page, 
Sumter,  and  Burke,  who  maintained  that  the  represent- 
ative would  be  bound  to  obey,  as  Gerry  admitted  he  ought 
to  be.  Page  thought  "  this  amendment  absolutely  nec- 
essary, and  strictly  compatible  with  the  spirit  and  nature 
of  the  government.  All  power  vests  in  the  people  of  the 
United  States.  It  is,  therefore,  a  government  of  the  peo- 
ple, a  democracy.  For  convenience,  and  for  convenience 
only,  the  people  had  agreed  that  their  representatives 
shall  exercise?  a  part  of  their  authority.  To  pretend  to 
refuse  them  the  power  of  instructing  their  agents  ap- 
peared to  him  to  deny  them  a  right."  The  proposed 
amendment  was  warmly  opposed  by  Hartley,  Clymer, 
Sherman,  Wadsworth,  Smith  of  South  Carolina,  and 
Madison.  If  the  right  to  instruct  implied  no  obligation 
to  obey,  it  was  amply  secured  already  ;  if  it  did  imply 
such  obligation,  it  was  highly  pernicious,  and  ought  not 
to  be  given.  "  Suppose,"  said  Madison,  "  a  representa- 
ave  is  instructed  to  violate  the  Constitution  :  is  he  at. 
liberty  to  obey  such  instructions  1  Suppose  he  is  in- 
structed to  support  certain  measures  which,  from  circum- 
stances known  to  him,  but  not  to  his  constituents,  he  is 


RIGHT    OF    INSTRUCTION.  123 

convinced  will  endanger  the  public  good,  is  he  obliged  CHAPTEB 

to  sacrifice  his  own  judgment  to  theirs  ?      Suppose  he  re- L 

fuses,  will  his  vote  be  the  less  valid,  or  his  constituents  1 
less  bound  to  yield  that  obedience  which  is  due  to  the 
laws  of  the  Union  ?  If  his  vote  must  inevitably  have 
the  same  effect,  what  sort  of  a  constitutional  right  is  this 
to  instruct  a  representative  who  has  a  right  to  disregard 
the  order  if  he  pleases  ?  The  honorable  gentleman  from 
Massachusetts  (Gerry)  asks  if  the  sovereignty  is  not  with 
the  people  at  large  ?  But  would  he  infer  that  the  peo- 
ple, in  detached  bodies,  can  contravene  a  law  established 
by  the  whole  people  ?  My  idea  of  the  sovereignty  of  the 
people  is  this  :  the  people  can  change  the  Constitution 
if  they  please  ;  but,  while  it  exists,  they  must  conform  to 
its  provisions.  I  do  not  believe  that  the  inhabitants  of 
any  district  can  speak  the  voice  of  the  people ;  so  far  from 
it,  their  ideas  may  contravene  the  sense  of  the  whole  peo- 
ple, and  hence  the  doctrine  of  the  binding  force  of  in- 
structions is  of  a  doubtful,  if  not  a  dangerous  character." 
It  seems  difficult  to  answer  these  arguments,  yet  they 
departed  very  far  from  the  popular  opinion  of  Madison's 
own  state,  and  from  what  came  to  be  the  recognized  po- 
litical creed  of  the  party  with  which  Madison  ultimately 
acted.  The  restricted  right  of  suffrage,  and  very  limit- 
ed constituencies  in  many  parts  of  Virginia,  and  the 
ample  leisure  of  the  planters  for  the  discussion  of  politi- 
cal affairs,  to  which  subject  many  of  them  devoted  their 
principal  attention,  naturally  made  the  right  of  instruc- 
tion a  very  popular  doctrine  in  that  state,  and  in  others 
in  which  a  similar  social  condition  prevailed. 

Seventeen  amendments  were  finally  agreed  to  by  two 
thirds  of  the  House.  The  Senate,  by  compression  -and 
modification,  and  leaving  out  two  articles  altogether,  re- 
duced the  number  to  twelve.  Of  these  twelve,  the  first 


124  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  two  related  to  the  number  and  pay  of  the  House  of  Rep 
'       resentatives ;  the  other  ten  were  pronounced  by  Live.r 
1789.  more  to  be  "  of  no   more  value  than  a  pinch  of  snufF; 
since  they  went  to  secure  rights  never  in  danger."     Ye* 
it  was  only  these  ten,  being  in  the  nature  of  a  bill  of 
rights,  which,  in  the  course  of  the  next  two  years,  re- 
ceived the  sanction  of  a  sufficient  number  of  the  state 
Legislatures  to  make  them  a  part  of  the  Constitution. 

The  importance  of  immediate  legislation  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  public  lands  was  strongly  urged  by  Scott ; 
but  nothing  more  was  doiio  at  present  than  to  pass  an 
act  for  the  government  of  the  Territory  northwest  of  the 
Ohio,  by  which  the  famous  ordinance  of  1787  was  rec- 
ognized and  confirmed,  but  with  such  alterations  as  to 
make  it  conformable  with  the  powers  vested  by  the  new 
Constitution  in  the  president  and  Senate. 

The  important  subject  of  the  national  debt  was  defer- 
red till  the  next  session,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
being  directed  to  prepare  a  report  or  plan  for  its  liquida- 
tion. For  the  present,  Congress  contented  itself  with 
providing  for  the  payment  of  its  own  members,  and  pass- 
ing an  appropriation  act  fixing  the  salaries  of  the  officers 
it  had  created. 

The  salary  of  the  President  was  established  at  $25,000, 
exclusive  of  the  use  of  a  furnished  house,  provided  at  the 
public  expense.  It  was  stated  in  the  debate  that  under 
the  old  system  the  household  expenses  of  the  presidents 
of  Congress,  paid  by  the  public,  had  varied  from  $8000 
to  $13,000  annually.  The  salary  of  the  Vice-president, 
though  not  without  some  opposition,  was  fixed  at  $5000, 
an  amount  by  no  means  corresponding  to  Adams's  ex- 
pectations, nor  adequate  to  the  scale  of  expenses  which 
he  had  adopted.  Washington  caused  the  expenses  of 
his  household  to  be  graduated  in  accordance  with  the 


SALARIES.  125 

salary  allowed,  so  as  to  carry  out  the  proposition  of  his  CHAPTER 

inaugural  speech,  to  receive  only  the  payment  of  his  ex- 

penses.  1789. 

The  Secretaries  of  State  and  the  Treasury  were  al- 
lowed $3500  each;  the  Secretary  of  War,  $3000;  the 
Controller  and  the  Treasurer,  $2000  each  ;  the  As- 
sistant Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  the  Auditor,  the  Reg- 
ister, and  the  Post-master  General,  $1500  each  ;  head 
Clerks,  $600  to  $800  ;  inferior  Clerks,  $500;  the  Gov- 
ernor of  the  Northwestern  Territory,  $2000. 

The  Chief  Justice  was  allowed  $4000,  the  other 
justices  of  the  Supreme  Court,  $3500  ;  the  Attorney 
General,  $1500.  The  salaries  of  the  District  Judges 
varied  from  $1800  to  $800.  The  District  Attorneys, 
Marshals,  and  Clerks,  as  well  as  the  officers  of  the  Cus- 
toms, were  for  the  most  part  paid  by  fees,  producing  sal- 
aries in  some  districts  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  im- 
portance of  the  office  or  the  general  scale  of  compensa- 
tion, an  anomaly  not  yet  entirely  done  away  with.  The 
Deputy  Post-masters  were  paid  by  a  certain  per  centage 
on  the  amount  of  their  receipts. 

The  pay  of  senators  and  representatives  was  fixed  at 
six  dollars  for  every  day's  attendance,  and  the  same  for 
every  twenty  miles  "  of  the  estimated  distance  by  the  most 
usual  road"  from  the  member's  place  of  residence  to  the 
seat  of  Congress.  The  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives was  to  be  allowed  double  attendance.  The 
Clerk  of  the  House  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate  were 
to  have  as  salary  $1500  each,  besides  clerk  hire,  and  an 
additional  allowance  of  two  dollars  per  day  during  the  ses- 
sion. A  proposition  to  allow  the  senators,  out  of  respect 
to  their  superior  dignity,  a  higher  rate  of  pay  than  the 
representatives,  was  voted  down  in  the  House ;  but  the 
Senate  strenuously  insisted  upon  it,  and  finally,  by  way 


[26  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  of  compromise,  and  to  prevent  the  loss  oi  the  bill,  a  pro. 

_  vision  was  assented  to  by  the  House,  that  after  the  4th 

1789.  of  March,  1795,  the  daily  allowance  to  senators  should 
DC  seven  dollars  ;  but  this  discrimination  never  actually 
went  into  effect.  All  these  salaries,  except  those  of 
president  and  vice-president,  have  since  been  increased, 
some  few  of  them  more  than  doubled.  Even  now,  how- 
ever, few  reach,  and  none  exceed,  $8000  yearly,  while 
the  general  rate  of  increase  hardly  corresponds  with  *he 
increase  in  the  expenses  of  living. 

The  New  England  members  were  strong  advocates  fcr 
low  salaries.  Ames  thought  that,  taking  the  salaries 
paid  by  the  states  as  a  guide,  $1500  would  be  enough 
for  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  would,  so  far,  at 
least,  as  the  New  England  states  were  concerned,  com- 
mand the  best  abilities.  Sedgwick  labored  very  hard  to 
fix  the  pay  of  the  members  at  five  dollars  a  day.  which  he 
thought  amply  sufficient.  The  Southern  representatives, 
accustomed  to  a  less  simple  style  of  living,  and  an  econ- 
omy less  strict,  favored  salaries  on  a  more  liberal  scale. 
Page  was  alarmed  at  "this  rage  for  reducing  salaries. 
It  was  supposed  by  many  to  be  Republican ;  but  he  en- 
tertained a  different  opinion.  No  man  ought  to  be  called 
into  the  service  of  his  country  and  receive  less  than  will 
defray  the  expenses  he  incurs  in  performing  his  duty. 
The  effect  of  these  low  salaries  would  be  to  fill  the  pub- 
lic offices  with  inferior  men,  or  to  throw  the  management 
of  public  affairs  exclusively  into  the  hands  of  aspiring 
nabobs,  who  would  lay  the  foundations  of  aristocracy, 
and  reduce  their  equals  to  the  capacity  of  menial  serv 
ants  or  slaves." 

As  chairman  of  a  committee  to  prepare  an  estimate 
of  the  net  produce  of  the  impost,  and  of  the  supplies 
necessary  for  the  present  year,  Gerry  reported  that,  in- 


SUPPLIES.     SEAT    OF    GOVERNMENT.  127 

eluding  the  unpaid  interest  on  the  foreign  and  domestic  CHAPTEB 
debt,  and  the  over-due  installments  of  the  foreign  debt,  ' 
the  amount  needed  for  the  service  of  the  current  year  1789. 
was  $15,442,000,  while  the  net  produce  of  the  impost 
and  tonnage  duties  for  the  four  months  and  a  half  dur- 
ing which  they  would  be  collected  was  estimated  at 
$607,000.  hardly  equal  to  the  current  expenses,  with- 
out any  regard  to  the  public  debt.  The  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  presented  an  estimate  of  current  expenses, 
amounting  to  $723,000,  including  about  $200,000  of 
arrearages  due  from  the  late  government.  The  bill,  as 
passed,  appropriated  $216,000  for  the  expenses  of  the 
civil  list  under  the  late  and  present  governments  ; 
$137,000  for  the  War  Department ;  $96,000  for  invalid 
pensions  ;  and  $190,000  for  unpaid  warrants  of  the  late 
Board  of  Treasury  :  in  all,  $639,000.  A  previous  act 
had  appropriated  $20,000  for  the  expenses  of  commis- 
sioners to  negotiate  with  the  Indians.  The  interest  on 
the  Dutch  debt  for  this  and  the  following  year  had  been 
already  provided  for  by  the  Continental  Congress  out  of 
the  proceeds  of  the  last  Dutch  loan.  This  was  the  only 
part  of  the  public  debt  on  which  the  interest  had  con- 
tinued to  be  regularly  paid. 

Of  all  the  questions  discussed  at  this  session,  none 
produced  so  much  excitement  as  one  started  toward  the 
close  of  it,  respecting  the  permanent  seat  of  the  federal 
government.  This  question,  first  raised  some  nine  years 
before,  in  consequence  of  the  unfortunate  mutiny  which 
had  occasioned  the  removal  of  the  Continental  Congress 
from  Philadelphia,  had  been  several  times  settled  and  un- 
settled in  that  body,  had  been  evaded  by  the  Federal  Con- 
vention, and  now  remained  for  Congress  to  dispose  of. 
To  retain  the  seat  of  government  at  New  York,  where 
the  Continental  Congress  had  finally  established  itself, 


[28  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  after  vibrating  for  a  year  or  two  between  Annapolis  and 
Trenton,  would  best  suit  the  Eastern  States.  Pennsyl- 
1789.  vania  was  very  anxious  to  win  the  seat  of  government 
back  to  Philadelphia  or  its  neighborhood.  Maryland 
and  Virginia  were  equally  desirous  to  fix  it  on  the  Po- 
tomac, and  in  this  they  were  supported  by  the  more 
Southern  states. 

The  New  England  members,  doubtful  of  the  result 
proposed  a  postponement  to  the  next  session ;  but  the 
Pennsylvanians  and  Virginians,  fearing  lest  the  claim  of 
New  York  might  grow  strong  by  delay,  prevailed  to  have 
the  subject  entered  on  at  once.  Thereupon  the  more 
Northern  members  came  to  an  understanding  with  the 
Pennsylvanians,  and  resolutions  were  agreed  to  for  fixing 
the  permanent  seat  of  government  on  the  Susquehanna, 
New  York  to  remain  the  temporary  capital  until  the 
necessary  buildings  could  be  erected.  The  Susquehanna 
had  been  preferred  to  the  Delaware  in  hopes  to  concili- 
ate the  South  ;  but  the  Southern  members,  especially  the 
Virginians,  were  very  much  dissatisfied.  The  Potomac, 
they  insisted,  was  far  to  be  preferred  to  the  Susquehanna, 
whether  as  respected  communication  with  the  ocean  or 
with  the  region  west  of  the  Alleganies.  Even  the 
moderate  Madison  declared  that,  had  this  day's  proceed- 
ings been  foreseen,  Virginia  would  never  have  ratified  the- 
Constitution.  In  spite,  however,  of  all  opposition,  a  bill 
passed  the  House  authorizing  the  president  to  appoint 
commissioners  with  authority  to  fix  the  particular  site 
on  the  Susquehanna ;  also  to  purchase  the  necessary 
lands,  and  to  erect  the  buildings,  a  loan  being  authorized 
for  these  purposes  to  the  amount  of  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars.  This  bill  came  back  from  the  Senate,  just 
before  the  close  of  the  session,  so  altered  as  to  substitute 
for  the  site  on  the  Susquehanna  a  district  of  ten  miles 


THANKSGIVING.  12U 

square    adjoining  Philadelphia,  and  including  German-  CHAPTER 
town.     This  change  made  the  bill  more  agreeable  to  the         ' 
Eastern  members,  and  not  less  so  to  those  of  Pennsyl-  1789. 
vania ;  but  it  tended  to  add  to  the  dissatisfaction  of  the 
South.      The  House,  however,  agreed  to  it,  with  an  ad- 
ditional provision,  that  the  laws  of  Pennsylvania  should 
continue  in  force  in  the  ceded  district  till  Congress  should 
otherwise  provide.      This  amendment  made  it  necessary 
for  the  bill  to  go  back  to  the  Senate,  where,  for  some  rea- 
son that  does  not  distinctly  appear,  but  probably  the  in- 
creasing dissatisfaction  of  the  Southern  members,  the 
whole  subject  was  postponed  till  the  next  session.  Sept.  m 

A.  few  days  before  the  adjournment,  a  resolution  was 
offered  in  the  House  to  request  the  president  to  recom- 
mend a  day  of  public  thanksgiving  and  prayer,  to  be  ob- 
served by  the  people  of  the  United  States  in  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  many  signal  favors  of  Almighty  God, 
and  especially  his  affording  them  the  opportunity  peacea- 
bly to  establish  a  constitution  of  government  for  their 
safety  and  happiness.  This  motion,  offered  by  Boudi- 
not  and  supported  by  Sherman,  did  not  pass  without  op- 
position. Burke  did  not  like  this  mimicking  European 
customs,  while  Tucker  intimated  that  it  would  be  as 
well  to  wait  for  some  experience  of  the  effects  of  the 
Constitution  before  returning  thanks  for  it.  He  thought 
the  question  of  a  thanksgiving  ought  to  be  left  to  the 
state  authorities,  as  they  would  know  best  what  reason 
the  people  had  to  be  pleased  with  the  new  government. 
In  spite,  however,  of  these  cavils,  the  motion  passed  by 
a  decided  majority. 
TV.— I 


130  HISTOKY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


CHAPTER    IL 

APPOINTMENTS  TO  OFFICE.  FOREIGN  AND  INDIAN  RELA 
TIONS.  RHODE  ISLAND  AND  NORTH  CAROLINA.  SECOND 
SESSION  OF  THE  FIRST  CONGRESS.  THE  FUNDING  SYS- 
TEM.  POWER  OF  CONGRESS  OVER  THE  SUBJECT  OF  SLA- 
VERY. TERRITORY  SOUTH  OF  THE  OHIO.  SEAT  OF  THE 
FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT. 

CHAPTEK  vJ^F  all  the  duties  devolving  on  the  president,  there  was 
'  none  of  greater  delicacy  or  importance  than  that  of  prop- 
1789.  er  appointments  to  the  various  offices  created  by  Con- 
gress. The  selection  of  suitable  persons  to  fill  the  seats 
on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  was  a  matter  which 
occupied  much  of  Washington's  thoughts.  The  post  of 
chief  justice,  which  might  be  considered,  next  to  that  of 
president,  the  highest  dignity  in  the  government,  and, 
in  some  respects,  superior  even  to  that,  was  given  to 
John  Jay,  active  and  conspicuous  for  many  years  as  a 
leading  member  of  the  Continental  Congress,  as  chief 
justice  of  New  York,  as  embassador  to  Spain,  as  one  of 
the  commissioners  for  negotiating  peace  with  England 
and  treaties  with  the  powers  of  Europe,  and,  finally,  as 
•  Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs.  For  Jay's  colleagues  on 
the  bench,  due  regard  being  had  to  their  geographical 
distribution,  Washington  selected  William  Cushing, 
chief  justice  of  Massachusetts;  James  Wilson,  of  Penn- 
sylvania, looked  upon  by  the  public  eye  as  a  competitor 
with  Jay  for  the  place  of  chief  justice ;  R.  H.  Harrison, 
chief  justice  of  Maryland,  formerly  Washington's  conn- 
dential  secretary ;  John  Blair,  one  of  the  judges  of  the 


APPOINTMENTS    TO    OFFICK 


131 


Virginia  Court  of  Appeals  ;   and  John  Rutledge,  so  dis-  CHAPTLP 

languished  from   the  commencement  of  the   Revolution ; 

in  the  politics  of  South  Carolina.  Harrison  declined  his  1789 
appointment,  preferring  the  office  of  Chancellor  of  Mary- 
land, to  which  he  had  been  simultaneously  appointed, 
and  the  seat  thus  vacant,  after  the  accession  of  North 
Carolina,  was  given  to  James  Iredell,  a  distinguished  law- 
yer of  that  state. 

The  appointments  of  Hamilton  and  Knox  as  secreta- 
ries of  the  Treasury  and  of  War  have  already  been  men- 
tioned. The  Department  of  State  was  offered  to  Jeffer- 
son, who  had  just  returned  home  on  leave  of  absence, 
after  a  six  years'  residence  in  France  as  minister  to  that 
court.  Jefferson  did  not  accept  this  appointment  with- 
out some  reluctance,  being  rather  inclined  to  return  to 
Paris ;  nor  did  he  actually  enter  on  his  office  till  the  fol- 
lowing March,  its  duties,  in  the  interval,  being  still  dis- 
charged by  Jay.  The  post  of  Attorney  General  was 
given  to  Edmund  Randolph,  late  governor  of  Virginia, 
who  had  played,  in  relation  to  the  Federal  Constitution, 
a  part  almost  as  conspicuous  as  Madison,  though  not 
quite  so  consistent.  After  having  been  active  in  form- 
ing it,  Randolph  had  refused  to  sign  it,  yet  finally  had 
supported  its  ratification  with  no  little  zeal.  Samuel 
Osgood,  late  one  of  the  commissioners  of  the  Treasury, 
was  appointed  Postmaster  General.  As  yet,  that  office 
did  not  confer  a  seat  in  the  cabinet,  which  consisted  of 
the  three  secretaries  and  the  attorney  general. 

In  filling  up  the  inferior  judicial  offices,  and  other  posts 
connected  with  the  administration  of  justice  and  the  col- 
lection of  the  revenue,  the  president  found  a  high  personal 
pleasure  in  providing,  consistently  with  the  interests  of  the 
public,  for  a  number  of  his  Revolutionary  companions  in 
arms,  many  of  whom  were  in  pecuniary  circumstances 


[£2  HISTORS    OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  to  make  such  appointments  very  desirable.  The  col 
'  .  ,  lectorships  of  Boston,  New  London,  and  Baltimore  were 
1789.  given  to  Generals  Lincoln,  Huntington,  and  Williams, 
that  of  New  York  to  Colonel  Lamb.  General  M'ln- 
tosh  was  appointed  surveyor  of  the  port  of  Savannah, 
and  General  Sullivan  district  judge  of  New  Hampshire. 
Generals  St.  Clair  and  Parsons  were  continued  in  their 
respective  offices,  the  one  as  governor,  the  other  as  a  judge 
of  the  Northwest  Territory.  Many  officers  of  inferior 
rank  were  otherwise  provided  for.  But  Washington's 
appointments  were  by  no  means  confined  to  military 
men,  the  larger  proportion  being  selected  from  civil  life, 
into  which,  indeed,  the  officers  of  the  late  Revolutionary 
army  had  been  long  since  absorbed. 

The  Senate  at  first  adopted  the  practice,  afterward 
dispensed  with,  of  passing  upon  all  nominations  by  bal- 
lot. Of  those  made  during  the  first  session  of  Congress, 
only  one  seems  to  have  been  rejected.  The  question 
was  early  raised  as  to  the  capacity  of  persons  holding 
office  under  the  United  States,  or  elected  members  of 
Congress,  to  continue  to  sit  in  the  state  Legislatures. 
The  decision  that  these  two  functions  were  incompatible 
was  soon  arrived  at,  and  has  ever  since  been  adhered  to. 
The  law  of  Virginia,  disqualifying  United  States  officers 
to  hold  any  state  office,  has  been  already  mentioned. 
The  first  appointments  having  been  made,  the  patronage 
of  the  president,  since  so  extensive,  remained,  during  the 
earlier  years  of  the  government,  comparatively  trifling. 

The  external  relations  of  the  United  States,  both  those 
with  the  countries  of  Europe  and  those  with  the  Indian 
tribes  along  the  WTestern  and  Southern  frontier,  early 
called  for  attention  on  the  part  of  the  new  government. 
Under  the  auspices  of  the  Continental  Congress,  commer- 
oial  treaties  had  been  negotiated  with  Franco,  Holland 


FOREIGN   RELATIONS. 

Sweden,  and  Prussia.      The  two  former  powers,  as  well  CHAPTER 
as  Spain,  had  ministers  resident  in  the  United  States.  _^__ 
A  treaty  with  the  Emperor  of  Morocco  afforded  but  a  1789. 
partial   security  against  the  cruisers  of  the  African  pi- 
ratical states,  who  were  accustomed,  at  that  day,  not     . 
only  to  capture  the  vessels  of  all  nations  not  in  alliance 
with  them — in  other  words,  not  paying  tribute — but 
also  to  reduce  the  crews  to  slavery.      Algiers,   Tunis, 
and  Tripoli,  as  well  as  Morocco,  each  had  to  be  sep- 
arately conciliated.      The  cruisers  of  these  states  gen- 
erally confined  themselves  to  the  Mediterranean,  into 
which  American  vessels  did  not  venture  for  fear  of  them. 
But  sometimes  they  sallied  forth  into  the  Atlantic,  and 
the  interference  of  the  new  government  had  been  already 
solicited  on  behalf  of  certain  American  citizens  captured 
and  held  in  slavery  by  the  Algerines. 

A  consular  convention  with  France,  framed  in  ac- 
cordance with  a  plan  agreed  to  by  the  Continental  Con- 
gress in  1782,  had  been  signed  by  Franklin  in  1784. 
But  the  inconveniences  of  this  arrangement,  when  it 
came  to  be  submitted  to  the  Continental  Congress  for 
ratification,  had  plainly  appeared.  It  gave  to  the  con- 
suls of  the  two  nations  complete  jurisdiction  over  the 
merchants  and  mariners  of  the  nation  they  represented 
— a  jurisdiction  which  could  hardly  be  exercised  with- 
out serious  danger  of  collision  with  the  local  authorities. 
Jefferson  had  therefore  been  instructed  to  ask  for  modi- 
fications, and  especially  for  the  insertion  of  a  limitation 
of  time.  After  a  long  negotiation,  this  limitation  and 
some  other  modifications  had  been  lately  conceded,  and 
the  convention,  having  been  signed  anew,  had  been  sub- 
mitted to  the  Senate,  during  the  late  session,  for  their 
advice  as  to  its  ratification.  Called  upon  by  the  Senate 
for  a  report  upon  the  subject,  Jay  stated  that,  though 


f($4  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  still  very  objectionable  in  several  of  its  provisions,  )  et, 

__  considering  the  circumstances  under  which  it  had  been 

1789.  formed,  the  United  States  could  not  honorably  decline  tc 

ratify  it.      Upon  the  strength  of  this  report,  the  Senate 

advised  its  ratification,  and  to  that  advice  the  president 

conformed. 

The  Chevalier  de  Luzerne,  who  had  left  the  United 
States  about  a  year  before,  had  been  succeeded  in  the 
French  embassy  by  the  Count  de  Moustier,  a  person  so 
objectionable  on  many  accounts,  moral  as  well  as  polit- 
ical, that  the  subject  of  his  recall  had  already  been  pressed 
upon  the  French  court.  As  there  was  no  good  under- 
standing between  Jay  and  Moustier,  the  French  minis- 
ter had  attempted  to  open  a  diplomatic  intercourse  di- 
rectly with  the  president ;  but  to  this  Washington  would 
not  assent. 

The  general  method  of  business  adopted  by  Washing- 
ton was  to  refer  all  letters  and  other  applications  to  the 
head  of  some  department  for  report,  which  report  he  ap- 
proved, or  suggested  alterations  in  it,  as  the  case  might 
be.  If  grave  doubts  arose,  the  matter  was  referred  to  a 
cabinet  consultation.  If  the  cabinet  did  not  agree  and 
doubts  were  still  left  in  Washington's  mind,  he  was  usu- 
ally governed  in  his  decision  by  a  majority  of  voices. 

To  supply  temporarily  the  place  left  vacant  by  the 
return  of  Jefferson,  Washington  appointed  William  Short 
as  charge  des  affaires  at  the  French  court.  Short  had 
originally  gone  to  Paris  as  Jefferson's  p-ivate  secretary, 
and  after  the  return  of  Humphries  had  been  appointed 
secretary  of  legation.  Carmichael,  the  resident  minister 
at  Madrid,  was  still  continued  there.  No  progress  had 
yet  been  made  in  the  negotiation  with  Spain  as  to  the 
limits  of  Florida  and  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi. 
Indeed,  a  scheme  was  believed  to  be  on  foot,  unde*  the 


FOREIGN    RELATIONS.  13£ 

patronage  of  the  Governor  of  Louisiana,  for  detaching  CHAPTER 
from  the  Union  the  settlements-,  west  of  the  Alleganies,  ' 
with  a  view  to  form  them  into  an  independent  state,  or,  1789 
what  would  have  been  more  agreeable  to  the  Spanish, 
a  province  of  Spain — an  intrigue  in  which  several  in- 
fluential persons  in  Kentucky  were  concerned,  some  of 
them  being  regular  pensioners  of  Spain,  of  which  full 
proof  was  brought  to  light  many  years  afterward.  The 
bait  to  be  held  out  to  the  Western  settlers  was  the  free 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi.  It  was,  perhaps,  as  an 
aid  to  this  design,  that  the  Spanish  government  had  re- 
cently granted  to  several  American  citizens  a  large  tract 
of  territory  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi.  Several 
officers  of  the  late  Revolutionary  army  were  concerned 
in  this  enterprise,  which  led  to  the  establishment  of  the 
settlement  of  New  Madrid.  But  the  projectors  seem  not 
to  have  realized  the  expected  profits,  and  the  intended 
colony  was  soon  abandoned. 

A  good  deal  of  jealousy  had  also  been  excited  by  the 
movements  of  Wilkinson,  formerly  an  officer  in  the  Rev- 
olutionary army,  having  served  as  Gates's  adjutant  gen- 
eral in  the  campaign  against  Burgoyne,  and  conspicu- 
ous from  his  unintentional  agency  in  bringing  Conway's 
intrigues  to  light.  Wilkinson,  who  had  lately  established 
himself  as  a  merchant  in  Kentucky,  had  descended  the 
Mississippi  with  a  cargo  of  tobacco,  and,  being  a  person 
of  much  address,  had  not  only  obtained  liberty  to  sell  it, 
but  had  entered  into  a  contract  with  the  Spanish  gov- 
ernor for  a  regular  supply,  the  government  to  be  the  pur- 
chasers of  all  he  might  send.  He  was,  indeed,  strongly 
suspected  by  many  of  being  a  party  to  the  Spanish  in- 
trigue for  the  separation  of  Kentucky  from  the  Union ; 
but  this  was  a  charge  which  he  always  denied,  and  of 
which  no  distinct  proof  was  ever  adduced. 


I  3(3  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Nor  was  it  from  Spanish  intrigues  alone  that  the  peace 
of  the  West  was  threatened.  That  same  Dr.  Conolly 
1789.  who  had  attempted,  in  conjunction  with  Governor  Dun- 
more,  at  the  commencement  of  the  Revolutionary  war, 
to  collect  troops  in  the  settlements  about  Pittsburg,  in 
order  to  attack  Virginia  in  the  rear,  and  who  was  now 
a  resident  in  Canada  and  a  lieutenant  colonel  in  the 
British  service,  had  lately  paid  a  visit  to  Kentucky,  nom- 
inally to  look  after  some  forfeited  lands  of  his,  but,  as 
was  believed,  with  the  hope  of  enlisting  men  there  for 
an  attack  on  New  Orleans.  A  breach  between  the  Brit- 
ish and  Spanish  courts  on  the  question  of  the  right  of 
the  British  to  trade  to  Nootka  Sound,  which  threatened 
a  war  between  those  nations,  had  encouraged  Conolly  to 
meditate  an  enterprise  which  the  continuance  of  peace 
made  it  necessary  to  abandon,  nor  does  he  appear  to 
have  met  with  much  encouragement  in  it  from  the  peo- 
ple of  Kentucky. 

The  relations  with  Great  Britain  were  on  a  footing 
no  better  than  those  with  Spain.  The  Navigation  Act, 
that  "guardian  of  the  prosperity  of  Great  Britain,"  as 
Lord  Sheffield  called  it  in  his  famous  pamphlet  on  the 
American  trade,  was,  as  we  have  seen,  strictly  enforced. 
The  exclusion  of  American  vessels  from  the  British  West 
Indies,  hitherto  left  to  ministerial  discretion,  and  regu- 
lated by  orders  in  council,  had  been  made  perpetual  by 
a  late  act  of  Parliament.  The  feeling  excited  by  that 
exclusion,  and  by  a  prevailing  sentiment  that,  though 
forced  to  resign  her  political  supremacy,  Britain  was 
still  bent  on  retaining  her  late  colonies  in  a  sort  of  com- 
mercial subjection,  had  been  fully  displayed  in  the  late 
debates  in  Congress  on  the  subject  of  discriminating 
duties.  On  the  ground  of  obstacles  placed  in  the  way 
of  the  collection  of  British  ante-Revolutionary  debts,  the 


FOREIGN    RELATIONS.  137 

Western  posts,  the  surrender  of  which  had  been  etipu-  CHAPTEU 

lated  by  the  treaty  of  peace,  were  still  withheld.      The 

question  as  to  the  negroes  carried  away  by  the  evacuat-  1789. 
ing  armies  was  also  unsettled,  and  a  new  dispute  began 
now  to  be  added  as  to  the  identity  of  the  River  St.  Croix, 
designated  in  the  treaty  of  peace  as  forming  in  part  the 
eastern  boundary  of  the  Union. 

The  return  of  Adams  having  left  the  United  States 
without  any  representative  at  the  British  court,  Wash- 
ington authorized  Gouverneur  Morris,  who  was  then  in 
Europe,  to  ascertain  whether,  if  another  minister  were 
appointed,  the  British  government  would  reciprocate  the, 
compliment,  and  also  what  their  views  might  be  as  to 
carrying  into  full  execution  the  treaty  of  peace  and  en- 
tering intq  commercial  arrangements.  A  promise  to 
reciprocate  the  appointment  of  a  minister  was  readily 
made,  but  on  the  other  points  Morris  could  obtain  little 
satisfaction  ;  nor  was  his  pride  altogether  untouched  at 
the  indifference  with  which  America  and  her  claims 
Deemed  to  be  regarded  in  Great  Britain. 

Interesting  as  they  might  be,  the  relations  of  the 
United  States  with  foreign  nations  were  yet  of  less  im- 
mediate and  pressing  importance  than  the  state  of  affairs 
with  the  powerful  Indian  tribes  along  the  Western  and 
Southern  frontier.  Since  the  peace  with  Great  Britain, 
treaties  had  been  negotiated  with  most  of  the  tribes 
which  had  taken  part  against  the  United  States  dur- 
ing the  war  ;  with  the  Six  Nations  at  Fort  Stanwix 
(Oct.  27,  1784),  with  the  Wyandots,  Delawares,  Chip- 
pewas,  and  Ottawas  at  Fort  M'Intosh  (Jan.  21,  1785), 
and  with  the  Cherokees  at  Hopewell  (Nov.  28,  1785). 
Acting  apparently  upon  the  principb  that  by  the  cession 
of  Great  Britain  the  United  States  had  obtained  an  ab- 
solute title  to  all  the  territory  within  their  nominal  lim- 


138  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  its,  the  American  negotiators,  in  case  of  all  these  treaties, 
'  had  undertaken  to  assign  boundaries  to  the  Indians,  with- 
1789.  out  giving  them  any  consideration  for  the  lands  they  were 
thus  required  to  relinquish.  This  departure  from  the 
uniform  usage  of  the  late  colonies,  and  the  established 
practice  of  the  British  Indian  agents,  had  naturally 
enough  given  great  dissatisfaction  to  the  Indians  —  a 
feeling  which  had  been  strongly  expressed  in  a  speech 
or  memorial  from  a  confederate  council  held  at  the  Hu- 
ron village,  near  the  entrance  of  the  Detroit  River  into 
Lake  Erie  (Nov.,  1786),  at  which  were  represented  not 
.  only  the  tribes  above  named,  but  several  others  also  of 
the  more  distant  West.  In  consequence  of  their  repre- 
Jan.  9.  sentations,  two  new  treaties  had  recently  been  held  at 
Fort  Harmar,  under  the  authority  of  the  Continental 
Congress,  one  with  the  Six  Nations,  the  other  with  the 
Wyandots,  Delawares,  Ottawas,  Chippewas,  Potawat- 
omies,  and  Sacs,  by  which  the  former  treaties  had  been 
confirmed  with  some  new  provisions ;  allowances,  paya 
ble  in  goods,  having  also  been  made,  to  the  Six  Nations 
of  $3000,  to  the  other  tribes  of  $6000,  in  consideration 
of  their  respective  cessions. 

But  to  these  new  treaties  the  tribes  on  the  Wabash 
had  not  been  parties ;  and  they  still  kept  up,  by  occa- 
sional expeditions,  the  hostilities  so  long  carried  on 
against  the  settlers  in  Kentucky.  The  parties  of  Ken- 
tuckians  who  crossed  the  Ohio  to  retaliate  were  apt  to 
attack,  without  much  discrimination,  any  Indians  whom 
they  might  happen  to  meet ;  and  some  unfortunate  in- 
stances had  recently  occurred  in  which  Indian  parties 
belonging  to  tribes  at  peace  with  the  United  States  had 
been  thus  recklessly  assailed ;  indeed,  the  danger  was 
great  that  the  whole  body  of  the  Northwestern  Indians 
might  thus  be  driven  again  to  lift  the  hatchot. 


INDIAN    RELATIONS.  J^y 

The  number  of  warriors  on  the  Wabash  was  estima-  CHAPTER 

11. 
ted  by  the  War  Department  at  from  fifteen  hundred  to 

two  thousand  ;  those  in  the  whole  region  between  the  1789 
Ohio  and  the  Lakes  at  five  thousand;  giving,  accord- 
ing to  the  usual  estimate  of  one  warrior  to  four  per- 
sons, a  total  Indian  population  in  the  territory  northwest 
of  the  Ohio  of  twenty  thousand.  But  the  true  num- 
ber was  considerably  larger,  perhaps  nearly  twice  as 
many.  This  estimate  did  not  include  the  Six  Nations, 
with  whom  two  particular  treaties  had  recently  been 
negotiated,  one  by  Oliver  Phelps  as  purchaser  of  the  pre- 
emption right  of  Massachusetts,  under  the  recent  ar- 
rangement between  that  state  and  New  York  as  to  their 
mutual  claims  to  lands  west  of  the  Delaware  ;  the  other 
by  the  State  of  New  York  itself,  with  the  Onondagas  and 
Oneidas.  By  these  two  treaties,  in  consideration  of  cer- 
tain stipulated  payments,  large  cessions  had  been  made 
in  the  fertile  district  of  Western  New  York,  the  Indians, 
however,  still  retaining  extensive  reservations.  The  tide 
of  immigration,  and  its  forerunner,  the  tide  of  specula- 
tion, were  beginning  to  set  strongly  upon  these  lands,  and 
the  Indians  wrere  in  danger  of  being  stripped  even  of  their 
reservations  under  color  of  leases  which  certain  land 
speculators  sought  to  obtain  of  them. 

The  Oneidas  had  given  evidence  of  some  advance  in 
civilization  by  adopting  a  written  form  of  government, 
founded  in  part  on  their  ancient  usages,  but  drawing 
many  ideas  from  their  white  neighbors,  among  others,  a 
partial  distribution  of  the  lands  of  the  tribe  among  indi- 
viduals, and  the  establishment  of  a  school  for  instruction 
in  English.  The  Stockbridge  Indians,  and  some  other 
fragments  of  the  aboriginal  tribes  of  New  England,  had 
been  established  on  the  Oneida  reservation.  The  Cayu- 
gas  and  Oneidas  had  steadfastly  adhered  to  the  interests 


140  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  of  New  York  throughout  the  whole  Revolutionary  war, 
in  consequence  of  which  they  had  been  at  one  period 
1789.  driven  from  their  homes  by  the  British  party  among  the 
Six  Nations,  and  exposed  thereby  to  great  sufferings. 
The  Mohawks,  under  the  influence  of  the  Johnsons,  had 
emigrated  to  Canada  early  in  the  war  ;  and,  as  they  had 
always  adhered  to  the  British,  their  lands,  including  the 
whole  region  north  of  the  Mohawk  River,  were  regarded 
by  the  State  of  New  York  as  conquered  territory,  though 
a  portion  of  this  region  continued  to  be  claimed  by  the 
Cagnawagas,  or  French  Mohawks,  who  dwelt  now  in 
the  neighborhood  of  St.  Regis. 

The  Indians  south  of  the  Ohio,  still  more  numerous, 
were  hardly  less  formidable  than  those  north  of  that  river. 
The  warriors  of  the  four  great  southern  confederacies — 
the  Cherokees,  the  Creeks,  the  Chickasaws,  and  the 
Choctaws — were  estimated  to  amount  to  fourteen  thou- 
sand, giving  a  total  population  of  about  sixty  thousand 
The  Chickasaws,  on  the  waters  of  the  Upper  Yazoo, 
and  claiming  the  district  west  of  the  Tennessee  River, 
and  the  Choctaws,  dwelling  principally  on  the  head 
waters  of  the  Pearl  and  Pascagoula,  and  extending 
thence  to  the  Mississippi,  being  too  far  removed  from  the 
frontiers  to  be  exposed  to  collision  with  the  back  settlers, 
had  always  been  on  good  terms  with  the  Anglo-Ameri- 
cans, and  the  friendship  established  with  those  tribes  by 
the  treaties  of  Hopewell  (1786,  Jan.  3,  June  12)  still 
remained  unbroken.  The  case  was  very  different  with 
the  Cherokees  and  the  Creeks,  brought  into  immediate 
and  irritating  collision  with  the  frontier  settlers  of  the 
Carolinas  and  Georgia.  The  Cherokees  claimed  the 
Cumberland  River  as  their  northern  boundary,  their  ter- 
ritory  embracing  the  larger  portion  of  the  present  state  of 
Tennessee,  with  parts  also  of  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia 


INDIAN    RELATIONS.  ^43 

In  framing  the  treaty  of  Hopewell,  the  American  com-  CHAPTEB 

missioners  had  gone  as  far,  in  curtailing  the  Indian  lim- 1^_ 

its,  as  any  sense  of  justice  would  permit,  and  the  Cher-  1789 
okees  had  found  themselves  obliged  to  relinquish  a  con- 
siderable tract  south  of  Nashville  as  far  as  Duck  River, 
besides  other  districts  on  their  eastern  border.  The  Cher- 
okees  were  greatly  dissatisfied  at  these  curtailments, 
while  the  >\ackwoodsmen  complained  loudly  at  what  they 
considered  the  unreasonable  concessions  made  to  the  In- 
dians. The  agents  of  North  Carolina  and  Georgia  in 
attendance  at  Hopewell  had  protested  against  the  treaty ; 
nor  had  any  regard  whatever  been  paid  to  its  provisions 
by  the  authorities  of  the  insurrectionary  state  of  Frank- 
lin or  Frankland,  embracing  the  settlements  in  the  im- 
mediate neighborhood  of  the  Cherokee  country.  In  con- 
sequence of  the  many  outrages  committed  by  these  wild 
backwoodsmen,  a  war  had  ensued  (1787),  in  which  Se- 
vier,  the  fugitive  governor  of  the  expiring  state  of  Frank- 
land,  had  taken  an  active  part.  Worsted  in  this  contest, 
their  fields  ravaged,  their  villages  burned,  some  of  their 
warriors  entrapped  by  false  pretenses  and  slain  in  cold 
blood,  not  even  their  women  and  children  spared,  the 
eastern  clans  of  the  Cherokees  had  been  driven  to  seek 
shelter  with  the  Creeks.  The  Continental  Superintend- 
ent of  Indian  Affairs  for  the  Southern  Department  had 
remonstrated  against  these  outrages,  as  well  with  the 
governor  of  North  Carolina  as  with  the  inhabitants  on 
the  frontier,  and  the  Continental  Congress  had  issued  a 
proclamation  (Sept.  1,  1788),  one  of  the  last,  as  it  was 
among  the  most  honorable  official  acts  of  that  body,  de- 
claring their  intention  to  protect  the  Cherokees  in  their 
rights ;  enjoining  the  intruders  beyond  the  limits  fixed 
by  the  treaty  of  Hopewell  to  retire;  and  directing  the 
Secretary  of  War  to  hold  in  readiness  a  part  of  the  Con- 


142         HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  tinental  regiment  distributed  at  the  posts  along  the  Ohio, 

. to  march,  should  there  be  need,  to  the  assistance  of  the 

1789.  Cherokees.  At  the  same  time,  a  new  negotiation  was 
directed  with  the  Southern  Indians,  the  Creeks  as  well 
as  the  Cherokees,  the  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs 
to  be  joined  for  that  purpose  by  commissioners  from  the 
states  of  North  Carolina  and  Georgia.  This  vigorous 
interference  of  the  expiring  Continental  Congress  had 
the  effect  to  put  a  stop  to  a  project  then  on  foot  among 
the  militia  officers  in  the  back  counties  of  North  Caro- 
lina, to  raise  fifteen  hundred  men  for  a  new  expedition 
against  the  Cherokees  ;  the  state  authorities  had  ex- 
erted themselves  to  restore  peace ;  and  shortly  after  the 
June  16.  meeting  of  the  new  Congress,  a  truce  had  been  arranged, 
by  which  it  was  stipulated  that  a  treaty  should  be  held 
as  soon  as  possible,  all  hostilities  in  the  mean  while  to 
cease.  Taking  advantage  of  this  truce,  the  Cherokees 
had  hastened  to  send  a  delegation  to  New  York,  under 
the  guidance  of  a  friendly  trader,  to  appeal  to  "  their 
elder  brother  General  Washington  and  the  great  council 
of  the  United  States,"  to  secure  them  in  their  rights  un- 
der the  treaty  of  Hopewell.  But,  as  North  Carolina  had 
not  yet  acceded  to  the  new  Constitution,  the  Senate  de- 
clined to  recommend  any  immediate  movement  beyond 
a  message  to  the  Cherokees,  promising  full  justice  as 
soon  as  the  obstacle  growing  out  of  the  present  position 
of  North  Carolina  should  be  removed. 

An  Indian  war,  originating  in  similar  causes,  had  also 
sprung  up  in  Georgia ;  but  the  Creeks  had  been  more 
fortunate  than  their  northern  neighbors.  The  Creek 
warriors,  estimated  at  between  four  and  five  thousand, 
were  mostly  well  armed  with  good  rifles,  and  amply  fur- 
nished with  ammunition.  In  this  respect,  through  the 
aid  of  the  Spaniards  in  Florida,  they  had  greatly  the 


INDIAN    RELATIONS.  143 

advantage  of  the  Cherokees,  whose  fire-arms  were  poor  CIIAPTEB 

and  few,  and  their  supply  of  powder  limited  and  precari- 

ous.  The  upper  Creeks  dwelt  principally  on  the  upper  1789. 
waters  of  the  Alabama  ;  the  lower  Creeks  on  the  Appa- 
lachicola  and  its  two  branches,  the  Chattahoochee  and 
the  Flint.  The  Seminoles,  a  branch  of  the  lower  Creeks, 
extended  into  Florida.  The  towns,  or  sub-tribes  of  the 
Creeks,  including  both  divisions  of  the  nation,  were  about 
eighty  in  number,  but  very  different  in  population  and 
importance,  a  few,  called  "  mother  towns,"  having  the 
principal  direction  of  affairs.  The  Creeks  had  the  great 
advantage  of  an  able  and  accomplished  head  chief  in 
Alexander  M'Gillivray,  the  son  of  a  Creek  woman  of 
the  family  of  the  principal  chiefs,  by  a  Scotchman  who, 
as  a  means  of  increasing  his  influence,  had  intermarried 
with  her,  according  to  a  common  practice  among  the 
Indian  traders.  Having  been  put  to  school  at  Charles- 
ton, where  he  learned  Latin  and  acquired  a  tolerable 
education,  the  young  JVl'Gillivray,  at  the  age  of  seven- 
teen, had  been  placed  by  his  father  in  a  counting-house. 
But,  though  not  without  capacity  for  mercantile  affairs, 
he  still  devoted  most  of  his  time  to  reading  and  study. 
His  father,  who  had  large  possessions  in  Georgia,  adher- 
ing in  the  Revolution  to  the  British  side,  had  been  ban- 
ished, and  his  property  confiscated ;  circumstances  not 
likely  to  bias  the  son  in  favor  of  the  Georgians.  Taking 
refuge  among  the  Creeks,  the  young  M'Gillivray,  as  well 
by  reason  of  his  superior  talents  and  knowledge  as  by  his 
claims  of  birth,  transmitted,  according  to  the  Indian  cus- 
tom, in  the  line  of  the  mother,  had  risen  to  be  the  head 
chief,  or,  in  the  phraseology  of  the  Creeks,  "  the  beloved 
man"  of  the  nation. 

Shortly  after  the  peace  with  Great  Britain,  the  Geor- 
gians had,  as  they  alleged,  concluded  a  treaty  at  Augusta 


144  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED  STATED. 

CHAPTER  (Nov.,  1783)  with  that  great  body  of  the  Creek  nation 
,  which  had  adhered  to  the  British  during  the  late  strug- 

1 789.  gle.  This  treaty,  confirmed  by  two  others — the  one  of 
Galphinton  (Nov.,  1785),  the  other  of  Shoulderbone 
(Nov.,  1786) — had  ceded  to  Georgia  a  considerable  tract 
of  the  Creek  lands  west  and  south  of  the  Oconee.  But 
the  Creeks  denied  the  validity  of  these  treaties,  which, 
indeed,  under  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  the  State  of 
Georgia  had  no  right  to  make,  the  management  of  In- 
dian affairs  being  expressly  reserved  to  the  Continental 
Congress.  According  to  the  Creeks,  the  two  pretended 
treaties  of  Augusta  and  Galphinton  had  been  entered 
into,  without  any  authority  from  the  nation,  by  two  or 
three  border  chiefs,  who  had  maintained  during  the  late 
war  a  neutrality  and  friendly  intercourse  with  the  Geor- 
gians. So  far  as  related  to  the  treaty  of  Galphinton, 
this  account  found  support  in  the  conduct  of  the  United 
States  commissioners,  who  had  negotiated  at  Hope  well 
three  cotemporaneous  treaties  with  the  Cherokees,  Choc- 
taws,  and  Chickasaws,  but  who  had  declined  a  journey 
to  Galphinton  to  negotiate  with  the  Creeks,  for  the  ex- 
press reason  that  only  two  chiefs  were  present  there ;  a 
circumstance,  however,  which  did  not  prevent  the  agent 
of  Georgia  from  proceeding  with  the  negotiation.  As  to 
the  treaty  of  Shoulderbone,  that  had  been  imposed,  so 
M'Gillivray  alleged,  by  threats  of  personal  violence,  upon 
a  council  attended  by  a  few  chiefs  only,  the  six  hostages 
pretended  by  the  Georgians  to  have  been  given  for  its 
fulfillment  being  in  fact  six  prisoners  forcibly  seized. 

The  Georgians  having  hastened  to  distribute  as  mili- 
tary bounties  the  lands  west  and  south  of  the  Oconee 
alleged  to  be  thus  ceded,  and  new  settlers  having  moved 
on  to  occupy  them,  the  Creeks  had  resented  what  they 
deemed  an  intrusion;  a  war  had  followed  (1787),  and 


INDIAN    RELATIONS.  145 

notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  the  late  Continental  Con-  CHAPTEU 

gress  to  bring  about  an  arrangement,  it  vyas  still  carried L__ 

on,  the  Creeks  insisting  on  the  restoration  of  their  land.  1789. 
In  this  war  the  Georgians  had  suffered .  severely,  and 
the  alarm  had  spread  even  to  the  town  of  Savannah.  It 
was  among  the  victorious  Creeks  that  the  defeated  Cher- 
okees  had  found  refuge.  The  Georgians  had  called  on 
the  neighboring  states  for  assistance,  but  without  much 
effect,  and  it  was  the  hope  of  aid  from  the  new  fed- 
eral government  which  had  prompted  so  speedy  a  ratifi- 
cation by  Georgia  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  These 
hostilities  had  not  been  confined  to  Georgia  alone,  but 
had  extended  to  the  distant  and  isolated  settlements  about 
Nashville,  which  had  suffered  not  a  little  from  occasional 
inroads  of  the  Creeks. 

For  more  than  a  century  the  Creeks  had  been  allies 
of  the  Anglo-Americans  and  enemies  of  the  Spaniards. 
These  same  relations  they  were  still  disposed  to  main- 
tain ;  but,  finding  the  Georgians  hostile,  they  had  entered 
into  a  close  alliance  with  the  Spanish  government,  lately 
re-established  in  Florida.  A  mercantile  firm,  in  which 
M'Gillivray  was  a  partner,  supplied  them  with  goods, 
introduced  through  that  province,  on  which  the  Spanish 
government  allowed  a  partial  remission  of  duties.  The 
Creeks  consumed  annually  about  $50,000  worth  of  Eu- 
ropean goods,  paid  for  in  furs  and  skins.  M'Gillivray 
was  much  courted  by  the  Spanish  governor  of  Florida, 
and  was  said  to  have  a  commission  as  colonel  in  the 
military  sei  vice  of  Spain.  Having  it  thus  in  their  power 
to  obtain  ready  supplies  of  arms  and  ammunition,  the 
Creeks  were  much  more  formidable  enemies  than  the  in- 
terior and  ill-armed  Cherokees. 

Both  these  confederacies  had  made  some  steps  in  ad- 
vance of  their  original  savage  state.     Though  still,  fcr 
IV.— K 


146  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

CHAPTER  the  most  part,  hunters,  they  cultivated  considerable  crops 

'       of  corn  and  sweet  potatoes ;  they  had  cattle  and  horses. 

1789.  and  a  few  slaves,  refugees  from  their  white  neighbors, 

or   captured  in  war.      Lately,  in  some  instances,  they 

had  introduced  the  use  of  the  plow. 

An  appropriation  being  made  by  the  new  Congress 
to  meet  the  expense  of  that  renewed  negotiation  with 
the  Southern  Indians  which  the  Continental  Congress 
had  ordered,  Washington  had  appointed  as  commission- 
ers for  that  purpose  General  Lincoln,  Colonel  Hum- 
phreys, and  Cyrus  Griffin,  late  president  of  Congress, 
and  afterward  district  judge  of  Virginia,  all  purposely 
selected  from  states  having  no  relations  with  the  south- 
ern tribes.  These  commissioners  were  instructed  to  in- 
vestigate the  history  of  the  three  treaties  between  Geor- 
gia and  the  Creeks,  and  if  they  should  appear  to  have 
been  fairly  made,  to  endeavor  to  induce  the  Indians  to 
conform  to  them,  being  authorized  to  hold  out,  in  the 
last  resort,  the  threat  of  war  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States.  Should  it  appear  that  the  treaties  were  of  such 
a  character  that  the  United  States  could  not  sustain 
them  consistently  with  justice,  the  commissioners  were 
to  endeavor  to  obtain  by  a  new  treaty  the  tract  west 
of  the  Oconee,  which,  being  already  occupied  by  set- 
tlers, could  not  be  relinquished  without  great  inconven- 
ience. Arrangements  had  already  been  made  by  the 
Indian  agent  for  holding  a  treaty  with  the  Creeks  at 
Rock  Landing,  on  the  Oconee,  and  there,  at  the  time 

Sent  20.  appointed,  the  commissioners  met  M'Gillivray  and  the 
other  principal  chiefs.  They  \vere  received  with  great 
marks  of  friendship,  the  Indians  being  disposed  to  grant 
to  the  agents  of  the  United  States  the  same  tokens  of 
respect  hitherto  yielded  to  the  British  Indian  agents,  and 
to  substitute  the  President  of  the  United  States  as  thair 


MORTH    CAROLINA    AND    RHODE    ISLAND.        147 

•<  Great  Father"'  in  place  of  the  British  king.  But  it  CHATTEB 
soon  became  evident  that  they  were  firmly  resolved  not 
to  consent  to  the  extensive  claims  of  territory  set  up  by  1789. 
the  Georgians  Finding  that  the  commissioners  did  not 
propose  to  restore  their  lands,  they  broke  off  the  treaty 
abruptly,  without  proposing  any  counter-project,  promis- 
ing, however,  to  remain  peaceable  till  furthe*  negotiations 
could  be  had.  The  commissioners,  in  their  report  to  the 
Secretary  of  War,  expressed  an  opinion  favorable  to  the 
validity  of  the  three  treaties;  but  they  seem  to  have  had 
no  other  evidence  of  it  except  the  assurances  of  Walton, 
the  governor  of  Georgia. 

Along  the  whole  line  of  the  western  frontier,  Indian 
affairs,  it  thus  appears,  were  in  a  very  unsettled  state. 

Already,  before  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  evidences 
had  appeared  of  some  uneasiness  on  the  part  both  of 
North  Carolina  and  Rhode  Island  at  their  present  isola- 
ted position.  Provision  had  been  made  in  North  Caro- 
lina for  calling  a  second  convention,  to  take  the  Federal 
Constitution  again  into  consideration ;  an  address  to  Con- 
gress from  the  General  Assembly  of  Rhode  Island,  drawn 
up  with  no  little  art  and  skill,  plainly  evinced  the  alarm 
felt  by  the  ruling  party  of  that  little  state.  After  ap- 
pealing to  the  recollection  of  hazards  and  hardships  in 
the  common  cause,  this  address  suggested,  as  an  apology 
for  their  doubts  and  hesitation  in  acceding  to  the  new 
system,  the  strong  attachment  of  the  people  of  that  state 
from  its  first  settlement,  to  "  a  democratical  form  of 
government."  "  They  have  viewed  in  the  new  Consti- 
tution an  approach,  though  perhaps  but  a  small  one,  to- 
ward that  form  of  government  with  which  we  have  lately 
dissolved  our  connection,  at  so  much  hazard  and  expense 
of  life  and  treasure.  They  have  seen  with  pleasure  the 
administration  thereof,  from  the  most  important  trust 


148      HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

CHAPTER  downward,  committed  to  those  who  have  highly  merited, 
-  and  in  whom  the  people  of  the  United  States  place  un- 

1789.  bounded  confidence.  Yet,  even  in  this  circumstance,  in 
itself  so  fortunate,  they  have  apprehended  danger  by  way 
of  precedent.  Can  it  be  thought  strange,  then,  that, 
with  these  impressions,  they  should  wait  to  see  the  pro- 
posed system  organized  and  in  operation ;  to  see  what 
further  checks  and  securities  would  be  established  by  wav 
of  amendments,  before  they  could  adopt  it  as  a  form  of 
government  for  themselves  and  their  posterity  ?" 

"  We  are  sensible  of  the  extremes  to  which  democrat- 
ical  government  is  sometimes  liable,  something  of  which 
we  have  lately  experienced,  but  we  esteem  them  tempo- 
rary and  partial  evils  compared  with  the  loss  of  liberty 
and  the  rights  of  a  free  people.  Neither  do  we  appre- 
hend they  will  be  marked  with  severity  by  our  sistev 
states,  when  it  is  considered  that,  during  the  late  troubles^ 
.the  whole  of  the  United  States,  notwithstanding  their 
joint  wisdom  and  efforts,  fell  into  the  like  misfortune; 
that  from  our  extraordinary  exertions,  this  state  was  left 
in  a  situation  nearly  as  embarrassing  as  that  during  the 
late  war  ;  that  in  the  measures  which  were  adopted, 
government  unfortunately  had  not  that  aid  and  support 
from  the  moneyed  interest  which  our  sister  states  of  New 
York  and  the  Carolina?  experienced  under  similar  cir- 
cumstances ;  and  especially  when  it  is  considered  that, 
upon  some  abatement  of  that  fermentation  in  the  minds 
of  the  people  which  is  so  common  to  the  collision  of  sen- 
timents and  of  parties,  a  disposition  appears  to  provide  a 
.remedy  for  the  difficulties  we  have  labored  under  on  that 
account." 

The  address  concluded  with  hoping  that  the  people 
of  Rhode  Island  would  not  "  be  altogether  considered 
as  foreigners,  having  no  particular  affinity  or  connection 


WASHINGTON'S    EASTERN    TOUR.  1  4  Cj 

with  the  United   States,"  but  that  trade,  upon  which  CHAPTER 

their  prosperity  so  much  depended,  would  be  preserved  , __ 

as  free  and  open  as  circumstances  would  admit;  prom-  1789. 
ising,  in  return,  that  such  commercial  regulations  should 
be  adopted  as,  instead  of  obstructing,  should  co-operate 
with  the  laws  of  the  United  States  for  collecting  a  rev- 
enue, and  that  the  utmost  efforts  should  be  made  on  the 
part  of  Rhode  Island  to  be  ready,  from  time  to  time,  to 
answer  her  proportion  of  such  parts  of  the  interest  and 
principal  of  the  foreign  and  domestic  debt  as  the  United 
States  might  judge  expedient  to  pay  and  discharge.  In 
conformity  with  this  promise,  a  law  had  been  passed,  im- 
posing on  goods  imported  into  Rhode  Island  the  same 
duties  levied  by  the  federal  tariff,  the  amount  thus  col- 
lected to  remain  a  separate  fund  devoted  to  Continental 
purposes. 

The  good  dispositions  thus  evinced  by  North  Carolina 
and  Rhode  Island  had  been  reciprocated  by  Congress  in 
the  passage  of  an  act,  just  before  the  adjournment,  ex-  Sept  24 
empting  the  vessels  of  those  states,  for  a  limited  period, 
from  the  operation  of  the  foreign  tonnage  duty. 

Shortly  after  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  the  presi- 
dent set  out  on  a  tour  to  the  Eastern  States.  Avoiding 
Rhode  Island,  he  proceeded  through  Connecticut  to  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  thence  to  New  Hampshire,  returning 
again  by  a  somewhat  different  route.  Every  where  he 
was  received  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm.  It  is,  in- 
deed, a  trait  of  the  people  of  New  England,  notwith- 
standing their  exceedingly  republican  spirit,  when  they 
feel  called  upon  to  pay  personal  honors,  to  carry  the 
matter  somewhat  to  excess.  "  We  have  gone  through 
all  the  popish  grades  of  worship,"  wrote  Trumbull,  the 
author  of  M'Fingal,  to  his  friend  Oliver  Wolcott,  audit- 
or, and  soon  afterward  controller,  of  the  federal  treasury, 


£50  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  "  and  the  president  returns  all  fragrant  with  the  odor  of 

.          incense."     This  visit  answered  a  good  purpose  in  stilling, 

1789.  in   a  great  measure,  the  loud  outcry  raised  among  the 

economical  inhabitants  of  New  England  against  whal 

they  esteemed  the  high  rate  of  pay  allowed  to  the  mem 

bers  of  Congress,  and  the  high  salaries  of  the  federal  of 

fleers  generally. 

NOT.  13.  On  the  very  day  of  the  president's  return  to  Newt 
York,  the  new  Convention  of  North  Carolina  voted  tci' 
ratify  the  Federal  Constitution.  Eight  amendments 
were  proposed,  of  which  the  principal  were  a  prohibition 
to  Congress  to  interfere,  either  by  themselves  or  through 
the  judiciary,  with  the  paper  money  of  any  state  already 
emitted,  or  with  the  liquidation  of  state  debts  already 
incurred. 

The  North  Carolina  Legislature,  in  session  at  the  same 
time,  passed  an  act  ceding  to  the  United  States  the  terri 
tory  now  constituting  the  State  of  Tennessee,  subject, 
however,  to  the  North  Carolina  land  warrants  already  is- 
sued, quite  enough  to  cover  the  greater  part  of  the  ter- 
ritory. They  added  also  the  important  restriction  "  that 
no  regulation  made  or  to  be  made  by  Congress  shall  tend 
to  the  emancipation  of  slaves." 

The  same  Legislature  appropriated  all  arrearages  due 
to  the  state  treasury  prior  to  1783,  toward  the  endow- 
ment of  a  state  university,  the  origin  of  the  college  at 
Chapel  Hill.  The  remnants  of  the  confiscated  property 
hitherto  undisposed  of,  and  such  lands  as  might  escheat 
to  the  state,  were  afterward  added  to  this  endowment ; 
but  the  whole  constituted  only  a  very  moderate  fund. 

The  former  constitutional  convention,  besides  acting 
on  the  Federal  Constitution,  had  been  authorized  to  fix 
upon  a  place  as  a  capital  for  the  state,  and  it  was  in  ac- 
cordance with  their  decision  that  the  city  of  Raleigh  was 


SECOND    SESSION    OF    THE    FIRST   CONGRESS.  Jgj 

laid  out  for  that  purpose,  thus  reviving  a  name  connect-  CHAPTER 
cd  with  tue  earliest  history  of  English  settlement  on  the         ' 
American  coast.  1789. 

Conformably  to  a  special  act  of  the  late  session  of  Con- 
gress, the  reassembling  of  that  body  did  not  take  place 
till  the  commencement  of  the  new  year.  The  president  1790. 
met  the  two  houses  in  the  Senate  Chamber,  and  address-  Jan.  9. 
ing  them  in  an  oral  speech,  written  copies  of  which  were 
afterward  furnished  to  the  Senate  and  the  House.  He 
recommended  adequate  provision  for  the  common  defense, 
in  reference  especially  to  Indian  hostilities;  an  appropri- 
ation for  the  support  of  ministers  and  agents  abroad,  a 
matter  hitherto  overlooked ;  the  establishment  of  a  fed- 
eral rule  of  naturalization  ;  encouragement  to  agriculture, 
manufactures,  commerce,  and  literature ;  and,  what  proved 
to  be  the  great  measure  of  the  session,  adequate  provi- 
sion for  the  interest  on  the  public  debt.  Both  houses 
having  waited  upon  the  president  with  formal  answers 
to  his  speech,  the  various  recommendations  contained  in 
it  were  referred  to  as  many  different  committees — a  prac- 
tice ever  since  adhered  to. 

As  the  federal  government  had  not  actually  gone  into 
operation  on  the  fourth  of  March,  the  day  originally  ap- 
pointed, but  several  weeks  later,  and  as  many  members 
of  both  houses  had  been  elected  at  a  still  subsequent  pe- 
riod, two  questions  arose  :  When  should  the  federal  year 
be  considered  to  begin  ?  and  what  was  the  term  for  which 
members  had  been  chosen,  two  years  from  the  date  of 
their  election,  or  only  to  the  end  of  the  current  Congress? 
It  was  finally  agreed,  on  the  report  of  a  joint  committee, 
that  the  present  Congress  should  expire  with  the  3d  of 
March,  1791,  and  that  persons  chosen  to  fill  vacancies 
should  be  considered  as  chosen  only  for  the  remainder  of 
the  Congress. 


[52  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER       Another  important  question  was,  What  should  be 

ii. 
sidered  the  state  of  the  business  left  unfinished  at  the 

1790  close  of  the  late  session  ?  The  consideration  of  this  sub- 
ject by  a  joint  committee  resulted  in  a  joint  rule,  that 
every  thing  might  be  taken  up  where  it  had  been  left  off 
at  the  adjournment,  except  bills  which,  after  having  passed 
orie  house,  had  stopped  in  the  other.  These  were  to  be 
considered  as  lost,  and  were  not  to  be  revived  except  by 
taking  up  the  subject  anew. 

A  third  question,  having  an  important  bearing  on  the 
practical  transaction  of  business,  grew  out  of  an  intima- 
tion from  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  that  he  was 
ready  to  make  that  report  on  the  national  debt  and  the 
support  of  the  public  credit  required  of  him  by  a  resolu- 
tion of  the  last  session.  Should  that  report  be  made 
orally,  or  in  writing  ?  It  was  insisted  by  those  who  fa- 
vored an  oral  report,  that,  to  the  full  comprehension  of 
so  complicated  a  subject,  verbal  explanations  would  be 
absolutely  necessary.  Those  of  the  opposite  opinion  in- 
sisted with  equal  eagerness  on  the  superiority  of  written 
explanations.  This  latter  view  prevailed,  and  the  prec- 
edent thus  established  has  ever  since  been  followed,  ac- 
cording to  which  official  intercourse  between  the  two 
houses  of  Congress  and  the  heads  of  departments  takes 
place  only  in  writing. 

Hamilton's  report  estimated  the  foreign  debt,  due  to 
the  court  of  France  and  to  private  lenders  in  Holland, 
with  a  small  sum  to  Spain,  at  $11,710,378.  This  in- 
cluded the  arrears  of  interest,  to  the  amount  of  upward 
of  a  million  and  a  half,  which  had  accumulated  on  the 
French  and  Spanish  loans  since  1786,  and  also  several 
installments  of  the  French  loan,  already  over-due. 

The  domestic  debt,  registered   and  unregistered,  in 
eluding  interest  to  the  end  of  the  current  year,  and  an 


REPORT  ON  THE  NATIONAL  DEBT.      153 

allowance  of  two  millions  for  unliquidated  claims,  prin-  CHAPTEH 

cipally  the  outstanding  Continental  money,  was  reckoned 

at  $42,414,085,  of  which  nearly  a  third  part  was  ar-  1790 
rears  of  interest.  Notwithstanding  the  attempts  of  the 
Continental  Congress  to  keep  down  the  interest  by  call- 
ing on  the  states  for  an  annual  contribution  in  indents 
or  interest  certificates,  those  calls  had  been  but  very  im- 
perfectly met.  Out  of  a  total  interest  accumulating  on 
the  domestic  debt  since  its  first  contraction  to  the  amount 
of  eighteen  millions  of  dollars,  less  than  five  millions  had 
been  paid  in  any  shape,  thus  leaving  an  undischarged  bal- 
ance of  more  than  thirteen  millions. 

With  respect  to  the  debt  due  abroad,  there  was  no  dif- 
ference of  opinion  ;  all  agreed  that  it  must  be  met  in  the 
precise  terms  of  the  contract.  With  respect  to  the  do- 
mestic debt,  very  different  notions  prevailed.  A  large 
proportion  of  the  certificates  of  that  debt  had  passed  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  original  holders,  and  to  a  considerable 
extent  had  accumulated  in  the  possession  of  a  compara- 
tively few,  who  had  purchased  them  on  speculation  at  very 
low  rates,  or  had  received  them  at  like  rates  in  payment 
of  debts  or  in  lieu  of  money.  The  idea  had,  therefore, 
been  suggested,  and  had  found  many  advocates,  of  apply- 
ing to  these  certificates  the  principle  of  a  scale  of  depre- 
ciation, as  had  been  done  in  the  case  of  the  paper  money, 
paying  them,  that  is,  at  the  rates  at  which  they  had  been 
purchased  by  the  holders ;  and  this  idea  was  especially 
urged  as  to  the  arrears  of  interest,  accumulated  to  an 
amount  equal  to  nearly  half  the  principal. 

Against  both  these  projects,  that  of  "  scaling  down 
the  principal,"  as  it  was  called,  and  of  a  discrimination 
as  to  the  interest,  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury took  decided  ground.  Without  overlooking  the  moral 
obligation  to  pay,  the  satisfaction  of  the  public  creditors, 


154  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  to  the  full  extent  of  their  claims,  was  treated  mainly  as 
______  a  matter  of  policy.      Public  credit  was  essential  to  the 

1790.  new  federal  government.  There  was  no  other  way  of 
meeting  those  sudden  emergencies  to  which,  in  the  vicis- 
situdes of  affairs,  all  nations  are  alike  exposed,  and  for 
which,  according  to  the  modern  expensive  method  of  con- 
ducting military  operations,  the  resources  of  immediate 
taxation  must  always  prove  insufficient.  But  public 
credit  could  only  be  established  by  the  faithful  payment 
of  public  debts,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  contract. 
The  original  contract  was  to  pay  so  much  money  to  the 
holders  of  the  certificates,  or  to  their  assignees.  The 
assignees  stood,  therefore,  precisely  in  the  place  of  the 
original  holders,  and,  so  far  as  payment  was  concerned, 
must  be  regarded  as  original  holders.  These  assignees 
had  exhibited  their  faith  in  the  nation,  had  preserved  the 
public  credit  from  total  extinction,  and  had  relieved  the 
pressing  wants  of  the  holders  by  giving  ready  money 
in  exchange  for  a  doubtful  and  uncertain  claim.  If  the 
sums  thus  paid  had  been  far  less  in  amount  than  the 
claims  purchased,  that  had  been  a  natural  and  inevitable 
consequence  of  the  financial  position  of  the  United  States, 
making  it  a  matter  of  great  uncertainty  when  the  cer 
tificates  would  be  paid,  or,  indeed,  if  they  would  ever  be 
paid  at  all.  The  equality  of  the  claim  of  the  assignee 
with  that  of  the  original  holder  was  a  most  important 
element  in  the  value  of  public  securities,  and  any  attack 
upon  that  equality  would  be  a  departure  from  that  policy 
of  establishing  the  public  credit,  which  formed  the  great 
political  motive  for  paying  the  debt  at  all.  If  any  com- 
pensation was  to  be  made  to  the  unfortunate  persons 
who  had  sold  at  a  loss,  it  ought  not  to  come  out  of  the 
pockets  of  the  assignees,  but  should  be  made  up  by  the 
government,  through  whose  fault  the  loss  had  occurred. 


REPORT  ON  THE  NATIONAL  DEBT.      ^55 

The  case  of  the  over-due  interest  was  put  with  equal  CHAPTER 
force.      That  interest  ought  to  have   been  paid  at  the          ' 
time.      It  stood,  therefore,  on  even  stronger  ground  than  1790 
the  principal,  which  the  creditor  had  no  right  to  demand 
so  long  as  the  interest  was  paid  ;   whereas  the  accumu- 
lated unpaid  interest  was  already  due,  and  now  demand- 
able.      If  to  make  instant  payment  of  the  whole  were 
impracticable,  the  creditor  ought  at  least  to  receive  a 
fair  and  substantial  equivalent  by  having  his  over-duo 
interest  converted  into  a  principal  debt. 

In  addition  to  the  sums  due  from  the  federal  govern- 
ment, somewhat  exceeding  fifty-four  millions  of  dollars, 
there  were  also  large  state  debts,  estimated  by  the  sec- 
retary to  amount,  in  the  whole,  over-due  interest  in- 
cluded, to  about  twenty-five  millions  of  dollars.  The 
assumption  of  these  debts  by  the  federal  government 
was  strongly  recommended.  They  had  been  incurred 
in  the  common  cause  ;  no  more  money  would  be  required 
to  pay  them  as  federal  than  as  state  debts  ;  that  money 
might  be  much  more  conveniently  raised  by  the  federal 
government  than  by  the  states  ;  and,  what  was  a  matter 
of  much  importance,  all  clashing  and  jealousy  between 
state  and  federal  debtors  would  thus  be  prevented. 

If  the  state  debts  were  assumed,  the  whole  amount  to 
be  provided  for  would  fall  not  much  short  of  eighty  mill- 
ions of  dollars,  the  annual  interest  exceeding  four  mill- 
ions and  a  half.  This  was,  perhaps,  a  greater  sum  than 
could  be  raised  without  the  risk  of  dangerous  discontents, 
such  as  would  put  the  whole  system  at  -hazard  ;  and 
hence  it  became  the  interest  of  the  public  creditors  to 
consent  to  any  arrangement  which,  in  yielding  them  a 
fair  equivalent,  tended  also  to  reduce  the  amount  to 
be  annually  paid.  The  domestic  debt  bore,  at  present, 
an  annual  interest  of  six  per  cent. ;  but  as  it  was  re- 


156  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  deemable  at  the  pleasure,  of  the  government,  whenevet 

the  credit  of  the  United  States  became  sufficiently  es- 

1790.  tablished  to  enable  them  to  borrow  money  at  five  per 
cent,  or  less,  the  public  creditors  might  be  obliged  to  ac- 
cept that  diminished  rate  of  interest,  or,  if  they  declined, 
might  be  paid  off  by  means  of  new  loans  contracted  at 
that  rate.  The  secretary  assumed,  as  the  basis  of  his 
calculations,  the  probability  that,  in  five  years,  the  United 
States  might  be  able  to  borrow  at  five  per  cent.,  and  in 
fifteen  years  at  four  per  cent.  To  assure  the  public 
creditors  a  permanent  rate  of  six  per  cent,  for  a  certain 
fixed  period  might  therefore  constitute  an  equivalent  for 
a  reduction  of  the  principal,  or  for  a  postponement  of  in- 
terest as  to  a  part  of  it,  thereby  reducing  the  immediate 
burden.  Thus  reduced,  the  interest  might  be  met,  as 
the  secretary  thought,  by  certain  additions  to  the  duties 
on  wines,  spirits,  tea,  and  coffee,  with  an  excise  tax  on 
spirits  distilled  at  home. 

For  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  this  arrangement,  it 
was  proposed  to  open  new  loans,  subscriptions  to  be  re- 
ceived in  certificates  of  the  old  stock  of  the  domestic  debt; 
principal  and  interest  to  stand  on  the  same  footing.  To 
meet  the  various  views  of  creditors,  different  offers  were 
suggested,  all  founded,  however,  on  the  above  assump- 
tion as  to  the  probable  future  ability  of  the  United  States 
to  borrow  at  a  reduced  interest.  Thus  the  public  cred- 
itor might  receive  two  thirds  of  his  subscription  in  a  six 
per  cent,  stock  redeemable  at  the  pleasure  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  the  balance  in  land,  at  the  rate  of  twenty 
cents  the  acre  ;  or.  instead  of  the  land,  stock  to  the 
amount  of  $26  88  on  every  hundred,  to  begin  to  bear 
interest  at  six  per  cent,  at  the  end  of  ten  years,  both 
stocks,  in  that  case,  to  be  irredeemable  by  any  payment 
exceeding  eight  dollars  annually  on  the  hundred  for  prin« 


REPORT  UN  THE  NATIONAL  DEBT.      157 

cipal  and  interest.      Another  proposed  alternative  was  to  CHAPTEB 

allow  a  four  per  cent,  stock,  redeemable  only  at  the  rate „ 

of  five  dollars  annually  for  principal  and  interest,  to  the  1700. 
amount  of  the  whole  subscription,  with  a  bonus  of  $15  80 
on  every  hundred,  payable  in  land.  A  third  proposal 
was  payment  of  the  subscriptions  in  a  deferred  annuity 
for  life,  or  an  immediate  annuity  on  the  survivorship  of 
two  lives,  to  be  calculated  on  a  rate  of  interest  at  four  per 
cent. — these  annuities,  by  their  expiration,  to  discharge 
the  principal — the  only  scheme,  in  fact,  upon  which  pub- 
lic debts  ought  ever  to  be  contracted. 

Upon  the  economical  as  well  as  the  political  benefits 
to  be  expected  from  this  funding  of  the  public  debt,  with 
a  regular  provision  for  paying  the  interest,  the  secretary 
dwelt  with  a  good  deal  of  animation.  The  stock  thus 
created  might  and  would  serve,  to  a  great  extent,  in  the 
place  of  money,  and  would  thus  furnish  a  capital  to  the 
holders  almost  equivalent  to  cash.  Such  a  creation  of 
capital  would  give  a  new  impulse  to  industry,  and,  by 
increasing  the  means  of  purchase,  would  tend  to  raise 
the  price  of  cultivated  lands,  which,  in  consequence  of 
the  immense  amounts  thrown  upon  the  market  to  pay 
the  debts  of  the  owners,  and  the  facility  of  obtaining 
new  lands  on  the  frontiers,  had  fallen,  in  most  of  the  old 
settlements,  to  less  than  half  the  price  which  the  same 
lands  would  have  brought  before  the  Revolution. 

But  while  he  regarded  as  certain  the  benefits  of  a  ju- 
dicious funding  system,  the  doctrine  that  a  national  debt 
is  a  national  blessing  was  esteemed,  by  the  secretary,  to 
be  sound  only  within  very  narrow  limits.  He  suggested, 
therefore,  the  appropriation  of  the  surplus  proceeds  of 
the  post-office  as  a  sinking  fund  for  the  gradual  extinc- 
tion of  the  debt. 

There  yvas  one  other  reason  not  dwelt  upon  in  this 


|58  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATE&. 

CHAPTER  report,  but  which  had  great  weight  with  Hamilton  and 
'       many  others,  in  favor  of  a  liberal  provision  for  the  public 
1790    creditors,  including  the  assumption  of  the  state  debts. 
It  would  be  a  politic  means  of  strengthening  the  new 
government,  by  attaching  to  it,  by  the  powerful  ties  of 
pecuniary  interest,  a  large  body  of  influential  men,  and 
of  re-enforcing,  in  that  way,  national  feeling  as  a  coun- 
terbalance to  the  preponderating  power  of  the  states. 

For  several  years  prior  to  the  organization  of  the  new 
government,  and,  indeed,  almost  ever  since  their  first  i?- 
sue,  the  certificates  of  the  federal  debt  had  changed  hands 
at  rates  not  generally  exceeding  fifteen  cents  on  the  dollar. 
The  current  value  of  the  state  debts  had  been  somewhat 
various,  but  in  most  of  the  states  had  exceeded  that  of  the 
federal  debt.  Some  rise  in  the  value  of  the  federal  certifi- 
cates had  taken  place  since  the  passage  of  the  revenue 
bill.  Upon  the  publication  of  the  secretary's  report,  it 
went  up  to  fifty  cents  on  the  dollar.  Large  speculations 
were  immediately  set  on  foot;  and  a  great  handle  was 
afterward  made  of  a  swift-sailing  pilot-boat,  said  to  have 
been  dispatched  to  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas  with  orders 
to  buy  up,  in  anticipation  of  the  news,  all  the  certificates 
which  could  be  had — -an  operation  in  which  Smith  of 
South  Carolina  was  alleged  to  have  been  interested. 

By  the  holders  of  the  public  securities  and  their  friends, 
including  the  great  body  of  the  moneyed  men  into  whose 
hands,  in  the  necessary  course  of  trade,  the  greater  part 
of  the  certificates  had  passed,  the  secretary's  proposal 
was  hailed  as  a  great  act  of  public  justice,  gloriously 
realizing  the  fond  hopes  of  those  who  had  struggled  to 
obtain,  and  were  now  struggling  to  support,  the  Federal 
Constitution.  But  there  were  others  by  whom  the  pro 
posed  funding  of  the  public  debt  was  regarded  in  a  very 
different  light.  They  saw  in  the  present  holders  of  the 


VARIOUS    OPINIONS    AS    TO    THE    PUBLIC    DEBT,  j^g 

certificates  not  those  who  had  shed  their  blood   ani  ex-  CHAPTEH 

pended  their  substance  in  the  public  cause,  but  a  body __ 

of  shrewd  and  hard  speculators,  who  had  taken  eager  1790. 
advantage  of  the  sufferings  and  poverty  of  the  original 
holders,  and  who  were  now  to  be  suddenly  enriched  out 
of  the  pockets  of  the  people.  Envy  at  wealth  to  be  so 
easy  acquired  ;  indignation  at  the  advantage  taken,  or 
supposed  to  have  been  taken,  of  suffering  patriotism  ; 
above  all,  a  strong  disinclination  to  pay  taxes,  completely 
closed  the  eyes  of  many  to  the  political  and  economical 
reasons  which  Hamilton  had  so  ably  urged.  The  very 
circumstance  that  injustice  had  been  done  already,  that 
the  inability  of  the  government  had  obliged  many  of  the 
original  creditors  to  part  with  their  claims  at  a  great  dis- 
count, seemed  to  these  persons  to  be  a  reason  for  sub- 
jecting the  present  creditors  to  a  similar  process ;  one 
piece  of  injustice,  as  usually  happens,  being  thus  made 
the  excuse  for  another,  in  order  that  all  might  stand  on 
the  same  level. 

Why  should  not  the  principle  adopted  with  respect 
to  the  Continental  paper  money  be  applied  also  to  the 
present  certificates  ?  In  that  case  a  nominal  debt  to 
the  amount  of  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars,  and 
from  which  the  government  had  actually  realized  some 
seventy  millions,  in  consequence  of  a  depreciation  of  the 
bills  in  the  hands  of  the  holders,  similar  to  that  which 
the  existing  certificates  had  undergone,  had  been  re- 
duced by  a  resolution  of  Congress  to  five  millions  of 
dollars,  being  at  the  rate  of  forty  for  one.  Nobody  pro- 
posed to  rip  up  that  work  ;  indeed,  it  was  part  of  the 
present  scheme  to  provide  at  that  rate  of  depreciation 
for  some  seventy-eight  millions  of  the  Continental  paper 
yet  outstanding,  and  constituting  the  bulk  of  the  unliqui- 
dated debt. 


[GO  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  It  would,  indeed,  have  been  a  short  answer  to  say  that 
nrm  repudiation  could  not  justify  another;  but  this  an- 
1790.  swer  would  not  have  come  with  a  very  good  grace  from 
those  who,  at  the  same  time  that  they  talked  about  the 
inviolability  of  contracts,  proposed  to  act  upon  and  to 
carry  out  the  repudiation  of  the  old  paper  money.  It 
was  attempted  to  draw  a  distinction  between  the  two 
cases  on  the  ground  that  for  a  large  part  of  the  paper 
money  the  government  had  received  an  equivalent  greatly 
below  the  nominal  amount  of  the  bills,  the  depreciation 
of  the  paper  being  exactly  measured  by  the  rise  in  prices, 
whereas  the  certificates  had  been  given  in  all  cases  foi 
liquidated  specie  values.  But  this  distinction  did  not 
reach  the  case  of  the  earlier  issues  of  paper,  which  had 
been  paid  out  and  received  at  par  ;  nor  was  there  the 
slightest  ground  to  pretend  that  the  Continental  Congress 
had  not  received  a  far  greater  consideration  .for  the  paper 
than  the  amount  to  which  it  was  finally  reduced.  An- 
other distinction,  more  to  the  purpose,  seems  to  have  been 
entirely  overlooked,  or  to  have  been  only  obscurely  hinted 
at;  the  circumstance,  namely,  that  the  bills  of  credit  had 
a  forced  circulation,  that  every  body  was  obliged  to  re- 
ceive them  as  cash,  and  that  the  loss  arising  from  the 
depreciation  was  thus  distributed  by  authority  of  the 
government,  and  in  the  nature  of  a  tax,  among  all  those 
through  whose  hands  they  had  passed,  that  is  to  say, 
among  the  whole  community,  in  proportion  to  the  extent 
of  their  moneyed  transactions.  The  certificates  having 
had  no  such  forced  circulation,  the  present  holders  could 
not  be  regarded  in  the  light  of  persons  who,  in  being  paid 
at  the  current  value  of  the  bills,  were  subjected  only  to 
their  share  of  a  ccnimon  loss,  imposed  upon  all  alike  by 
the  exigencies  of  the  war  and  the  law  of  the  land.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  refusal  to  pay  them  the  face  of  theii 


DEBATE  ON  THE  FUNDING  SY  STEM.     16] 

claims  would  make  them  special  sufferers,  punished  for  CHAPTER 

having  trusted  to  the  good  faith  of  the  government,  and 

unjustly  deprived  of  the  advantage  to  which  the  posses-  1790 
sion  of  capital  in  the  midst  of  general  poverty  and  dis- 
tress had  naturally  entitled  them,  and  which,  if  invested 
in  land  or  any  other  property,  would,  by  the  lowness  of 
prices  occasioned  by  prevailing  distress,  and  by  the  rise 
of  prices  on  the  return  of  prosperity,  have  produced  a 
similar  profit. 

After  the  interval  of  a  month,  the  subject  of  the  pub- 
lic debt  was  taken  up  in  Committee  of  the  Whole,  on  a  Feb.  a. 
series  of  resolutions  proposed  by  Fitzsimmons.  The  first 
resolution,  relating  to  provision  for  the  foreign  debt,  passed 
without  debate.  The  second  resolution,  proposing  to  ap- 
propriate permanent  funds  toward  the  interest  and  prin- 
cipal of  the  domestic  debt,  after  some  discussion,  was  met 
by  Scott  with  a  motion  to  postpone  its  further  considera- 
tion till  the  domestic  debt  was  fully  liquidated.  This 
motion,  evidently  intended  to  give  the  whole  subject  the 
go-by,  admitted  of  all  sorts  of  objections  to  the  plan  pro- 
posed, without  the  necessity  of  submitting  any  precise 
counter-project.  Scott  himself  boldly  took  a  ground, 
upon  which  alone,  with  any  regard  to  the  obligation  of 
contracts,  the  scaling  system  could  be  sustained,  and 
which,  had  his  assumptions  been  grounded  on  fact,  would 
have  removed  one  chief  distinction  between  this  case  and 
that  of  the  paper  money.  The  certificates  had  been  paid 
out  at  certain  nominal  rates  borne  upon  their  face,  but 
the  actual  cash  value  of  a  large  part  of  them  at  the  time 
of  their  issue  had  not  exceeded  a  sixth  or  eighth  part  of 
their  nominal  value,  from  which  circumstance  Scott  ar- 
gued that  they  ought  to  be  considered  as  having  beei 
paid  and  received  by  a  sort  of  compromise  between  the 
United  States  and  their  creditors,  and  as  an  actual  dis* 
IV.— L 


162  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  charge  of  the  claims  at  that  reduced  rate.  The  actual. 
'  and  not  the  nominal,  value  of  the  certificates  when  given 
1790.  was,  he  thought,  the  substantial  thing  to  be  looked  at, 
and  to  redeem  them  at  that  rate  would  be  a  substantial 
fulfillment  of  the  contract.  This  view  of  the  case  ap- 
plied not  merely  to  holders  by  assignment,  but  to  the 
original  creditors  themselves,  as  to  whom  it  was  coolly 
hinted  that,  even  though  no  provision  should  ever  be 
made  for  their  reimbursement,  yet  they  might  consider 
themselves  amply  indemnified  by  that  independency  and 
freedom  which  their  advances  had  helped  to  secure. 

To  this  it  was  answered  that  the  certificates  in  ques- 
tion were  precisely  bonds  or  notes  of  hand,  accepted  by 
the  creditors,  not  as  cash,  or  in  discharge  of  the  debts  at 
the  current  value  of  the  certificates,  but  merely  as  fixing 
the  amount  due  and  making  the  claim  transferable,  and, 
in  consequence,  merchantable.  This  fact  in  the  case 
was,  indeed,  so  unquestionable  as  to  drive  most  of  those 
who  argued  against  full  payment  into  bewailing  the  fate 
of  the  creditors  who  had  parted  with  their  certificates  for 
a  trifle.  Should  full  payment  be  made,  those  same  un- 
fortunate creditors,  to  whom  the  certificates  had  origin- 
ally been  given,  might  be  obliged,  it  was  said,  to  refund 
a  greater  sum  in  taxes  than  they  have  received  in  ex- 
change for  their  claims ! 

It  seemed  to  be  generally  admitted  in  the  course  of 
the  debate  that  the  original  holders  of  the  certificates  had 
in  many  cases  been  "  unhandsomely  dealt  with,"  so  one 
of  the  speakers  expressed  it.  But  on  this  topic,  ,as  is  apt 
to  be  the  case  in  such  matters,  there  seems  to  have  been 
considerable  exaggeration.  The  original  holders  of  the 
certificates  might  be  arranged  into  three  classes :  officers 
and  soldiers  of  the  Revolutionary  army,  to  whom  had 
thus  been  made  up  arrears  of  pay  and  clothing,  defi- 


DEBATE  ON  THE  FUNDING  SYSTEM.     1  (J  3 

ciencies  growing  out   of  the  depreciation   of  the  paper  CHAPTEB, 

money,  and  the  commutation  of  the   half-pay  for  life  ; „ 

farmers,  who  had  been  paid  in  certificates  for  provisions  1790. 
forcibly  levied  for  the  support  of  the  army ;  and  cap- 
italists, who  had  made  loans  in  the  old  paper,  for  the 
specie  value  of  which  certificates  had  been  given.  Of 
all  these  holders,  the  only  ones  likely  to  have  been  the 
subjects  of  actual  frauds  were  the  common  soldiers,  who, 
no  doubt,  in  many  cases  had  parted  with  their  certifi- 
cates as  lightly  as  they  would  have  done  had  those  cer- 
tificates been  money.  But  in  the  general  transfer  of  the 
public  debt  from  hand  to  hand,  during  the  seven  years 
since  the  close  of  the  war,  no  ground  appears  for  com- 
plaints as  to  misconduct  on  the  part  of  the  present  hold- 
ers. That  the  farmers  should,  for  the  most  part,  have 
parted  with  their  certificates  in  payment  of  their  debts 
or  for  the  purchase  of  supplies  was  naturally  to  be  ex- 
pected ;  nor  was  it  to  be  supposed  that  any  thing  more 
would  have  been  obtained  for  them  than  their  current 
value  in  the  market,  which  appears  to  have  been  quite  as 
great  as  was  warranted  by  the  state  and  prospects  of  the 
federal  finances. 

The  chief  speakers  in  favor  of  funding  the  debt  at  its 
nominal  value  were  Sedgwick,  Ames,  Gerry,  Sherman, 
Boudinot,  Hartley,  Fitzsimmons,  Stone  of  Maryland, 
Page,  and  Smith  of  South  Carolina.  The  principal  ad- 
vocates of  the  other  view  were  Scott,  Livermore,  Tucker, 
and  Jackson.  Some  of  the  speakers  urged  that  the 
United  States  being  a  party  to  the  contract  had  no  right 
to  enter  into  any  equitable  view  of  the  matter,  or  to 
undertake  on  such  grounds  to  cut  down  the  nominal 
amounts.  But  the  case  of  the  paper  money  was  pressed 
by  way  of  answer  to  this  view,  and  finally  Sedgwick 
admitted  both  the  power  and  right  of  government,  in  this 


164  HISTOxlY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTKR  and  every  other  case,  not  only  to  act  the  part  of  a  court 
of  equity  in  bringing  exorbitant  nominal  claims  within 

1790.  the  limits  of  reason  and  fair  dealing,  but,  where  the 
stability  of  the  social  system  was  in  danger,  to  decline 
altogether  even  the  fulfillment  of  bona  fide  public  con- 
tracts, and  to  interfere,  should  there  be  need,  with  pri- 
vate contracts  also.  Such  a  power,  however,  was  only 
to  be  exercised  in  cases  of  the  most  extreme  and  palpa- 
ble necessity,  a  case  which  the  present  circumstances  of 
the  United  States  did  not  present. 

Feb  11.  Scott's  motion  having  been  voted  down,  Madison  rose 
to  explain  his  views.  In  all  the  former  business  of  the 
House  he  had  acted  as  leader,  but  on  this  question  he 
had  hitherto  preserved  silence.  No  logic,  he  thought, 
could  disprove  the  obligation  of  the  United  States  to  pay 
the  whole  amount,  principal  and  interest,  promised  on 
the  face  of  their  certificates.  But  to  whom  should  this 
payment  be  made  ?  Where  the  certificates  remained  in 
the  hands  of  the  original  holders,  no  question  of  this  sort 
could  arise  ;  but  in  cases  of  transfer,  there  seemed  to  be 
two  parties  having  a  claim  upon  the  justice  of  the  na- 
tion. The  original  holder,  obliged  to  take  a  certificate 
depreciated,  at  the  moment  it  was  given,  to  a  sixth  or 
seventh  of  its  nominal  value,  might  justly  allege  that 
such  a  certificate  could  not  fairly  be  esteemed  a  discharge 
of  the  debt ;  and  in  support  of  that  view,  might  refer  to 
the  case  of  the  depreciation  allowances  made  to  the  army 
during  the  late  war.  The  holder,  on  the  other  hand 
might  say,  that  in  taking  the  risk  of  losing  the  whole 
he  had  justly  acquired,  in  accordance  with  the  tenor  of 
the  certificate,  a  right  to  the  full  amount.  To  pay  both 
sets  of  claimants  in  full  would  perhaps  exceed  the  abil- 
ity of  the  nation ;  at  any  rate,  it  would  be  to  refund  a 
sum  greatly  beyond  that  originally  received  by  the  pub« 


DEBATE  ON  THE  FUNDING  SYSTEM. 

lie,  a  stretch  of  generosity  not  expected  by  the  world,  CHAPTER 

nor  by  the  parties  themselves.      To  deprive  the  present  _^ 

holders  of  a  fair  profit  on  their  speculation  would  be  fatal  1790. 
to  the  proposed  establishment  of  public  credit.  To  make 
the  unfortunate  persons  who  had  sold  their  certificates 
at  a  great  sacrifice,  and  who  were  now  to  be  taxed  to 
pay  the  present  holders,  the  sole  victims,  was  abhorrent 
to  every  principle  of  humanity.  He  proposed,  therefore, 
and  he  moved  an  amendment  to  that  effect,  that  while 
holders  by  transfer  should  receive  the  highest  price  which 
the  certificates  had  ever  yet  borne  in  the  market,  thus 
giving  to  the  larger  part  of  them  a  very  handsome  profit, 
the  balance,  amounting  to  one  half  or  more  of  the  entire 
amount,  should  be  paid  to  the  original  creditors. 

This  proposition,  which  seems  to  have  taken  the  House 
quite  by  surprise,  was  very  far  from  meeting  the  views 
entertained  on  either  side  of  it.  It  had  been  the  object 
of  those  who  had  attempted  to  belittle  the  claim  of  the 
present  holders  to  find  an  excuse  in  so  doing  for  a  new 
repudiation.  If  nothing  could  be  saved  to  the  public, 
they  cared  but  little  to  whom  the  money  was  paid. 
Those,  on  the  other  hand,  who  went  for  full  payment, 
whether  impelled  by  the  policy  of  supporting  the  public 
credit,  or  through  desire  of  attaching  the  moneyed  interest 
to  the  support  of  the  new  government,  were  little  dis- 
posed to  favor  a  proposition  which  the  very  moneyed  men 
whom  it  was  desired  to  gain  over  would  hardly  fail  to 
consider  a  violation  of  their  rights. 

Boudinot  objected  to  the  impracticable  character  of 
Madison's  proposition.  The  certificates  being  payable 
to  bearer,  had  often  issued  to  merely  nominal  persons, 
and  not  to  the  actual  creditors.  This  was  especially  the 
case  with  those  paid  out  for  supplies  furnished  to  the 
.army,  the  commissioners  taking  a  quantity  of  certificates 


HISTORY    OF  THE    UNITED  STATE  S. 

CHAPTER  payable  to  themselves  which  they  transferred  by  deliver}. 

Sedgwick  objected  that  the  proposed  partition  of  pay- 

1790.  ment  between  the  original  holder  and  his  assignee  would 
have  the  effect  of  an  ex  post  facto  law,  or,  at  all  events, 
of  a  law  violating  the  obligation  of  contracts,  amounting, 
in  fact,  to  a  transfer  back  to  the  original  creditor  of  a 
part  of  that  property  with  which  he  had  voluntarily  part- 
ed for  a  valuable  consideration,  an  interference  with  pri 
vate  contracts  highly  dangerous  as  well  as  unconsti- 
tutional. The  loss  suffered  by  the  original  creditors, 
whether  by  the  fault  or  the  misfortune  of  the  govern- 
ment, could  not  justify  the  making  reparation  by  seizing 
for  that  purpose  on  the  lawfully-acquired  property  of 
other  people.  Even  granting  that  the  original  creditor 
might  have  an  equitable  claim  on  the  present  holder  for 
a  part  of  the  money,  it  was  the  business,  not  of  Congress, 
but  of  the  judicial  courts,  to  enforce  that  claim  ;  and  tc 
them  it  should  be  left.  Similar  views  were  urged  with 
great  ability  by  Lawrence  and  Smith  of  South  Carolina. 
Ames  poured  out  against  Madison's  proposition  a  torrent 
of  invective.  Benson,  Hartley,  Goodhue,  and  Wads- 
worth  maintained  the  right  of  tha  present  holders  to  the 
entire  payment.  The  galleries  were  crowded  with  spec- 
tators, many  of  them  large  holders  of  certificates,  who 
looked  on  with  beating  hearts.  The  unexpected  pay- 
ment in  full  which  ihe  secretary  had  proposed,  seemed 
to  them  already  like  a  property  in  possession  ;  and  men 
who  would  have  been  well  satisfied  a  few  months  before 
to  be  secure  of  fifty  per  cent,  on  the  face  of  the  certifi- 
cates, regarded  now  with  no  little  indignation  the  pro- 
posal to  allow  to  them  that  sum,  and  as  much  more  to 
the  original  holders 

Madison's  proposition  was  supported  by  Jackson  and 
Page,  and  by  his  two  colleagues,  White  and  Moore,  but 


DEBATE  UN  THE  FUNDING  SYSTEM.     ^57 

their  speeches  added  nothing  to  the  argument.      They  CHAPTEK 

.seemed,  indeed,  to  be  very  much  under  the  influence  of 

envy  at  the  great  profits  about  to  be  made — profits  in  1790. 
which  the  planters  would  have  little  share,  but  which 
would  chiefly  redound  to  merchants  and  money-lenders. 
They  drew  pathetic  and  rather  highly-colored  pictures 
of  war-worn  veterans  seduced  by  the  artful  persuasions 
of  cunning  speculators  to  sell  their  certificates  for  a  great 
deal  less  than  the  value.  In  fact,  the  whole  business  of 
the  purchase  of  certificates  was  denounced  as  having 
been  little  better  than  a  fraud. 

This  drove  some  speakers  on  the  other  side  into  ques- 
tioning whether  the  soldiers,  after  all,  had  such  claims 
on  the  government  as  had  been  represented.  Taking 
their  enormous  bounties  into  consideration,  they  had 
been  better  paid  than  any  other  soldiers.  The  public 
creditors,  who  had  transferred  their  certificates,  had  asked 
for  no  such  relief  as  this  motion  proposed,  nor  could 
they  accept  it  with  honor.  They  had  voluntarily  trans- 
ferred their  whole  claim  for  a  valuable  consideration,  and 
any  thing  which  might  now  be  paid  to  them  under  color 
of  discharging  that  claim  they  would  be  bound  in  honor 
and  justice  to  pay  over  to  their  assignees. 

To  all  the  denunciations,  some  of  them  rather  warm, 
leveled  against  his  motion,  as  if  it  were  a  proposal  to  rob 
the  present  holders  of  the  certificates  for  the  benefit  of 
the  original  creditors,  Madison  replied  with  great  calm- 
ness and  dignity.  He  admitted  that,  according  to  the 
strict  rules  of  law,  the  present  holders  were  alone  enti- 
tled to  payment,  and  that  the  original  creditors,  in  part- 
ing with  their  certificates,  had  lost  all  legal  claim  on  the 
government ;  but  their  claim  in  equity  still  remained, 
and  a  great  political  question  like  this  was  not  to  be  set- 
,tled  on  mere  grounds  of  technical  jurisprudence.  The 


J  68  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  great  object  in  paying  at  all  was  avowed  to  be  the  polit- 

,  ioal  object  of  establishing  public  credit.     In  strict  justice^ 

1790.  the  present  holders  might  be  entitled  to  the  whob  face 
of  the  certificates,  and  the  original  creditors  to  an  addi- 
tional indemnity  out  of  the  public  treasury  equal  to  the 
difference  between  the  face  of  the  certificates  and  the 
sums  for  which  they  had  been  obliged  to  sell.  But  the 
nation  was  able,  or,  what  in  a  government  like  ours 
amounted  to  the  same  thing,  was  willing  to  pay  no  more 
in  the  whole  than  a  sum  equal  to  the  original  debt,  with 
the  interest  upon  it.  How  should  that  sum  be  distribu- 
ted ?  Should  all  of  it  go  to  the  mere  technical  creditor, 
whose  sole  merit  consisted  in  having  confidence  enough 
in  the  government  to  speculate  in  its  securities,  or  should 
those  also  come  in  for  a  share  by  whom  services  had  act- 
ually been  rendered  and  supplies  actually  furnished,  but 
^  whom  the  necessities  of  government  and  their  own  had 
compelled  to  accept  a  very  partial  equivalent  ?  Holders 
of  certificates  by  purchase  had  unquestionably  a  certain 
merit  and  a  certain  claim  ;  but  ought  they  not  to  be  sat- 
isfied with  being  paid  the  utmost  amount  which,  prioi 
to  the  secretary's  report,  they  could  have  expected,  and 
which  they  would  then  have  very  gladly  received  ?  Those 
who,  for  services  performed  and  advances  made,  had  re- 
alized but  a  very  inadequate  recompense,  had  also  a 
merit  and  a  claim.  Would  not  the  public  credit  be  bet- 
ter  established  by  recognizing  both  these  claims,  and 
meeting  both  to  the  extent  of  the  public  means,  rather 
than  by  paying  one  in  full  to  the  total  exclusk  n  of  the 
other  ?  That  method  would  establish  a  credit  only  with 
capitalists;  the  other  would  establish  a  credit  not  less 
essential  with  those  from  whom  was  to  be  expected  the 
actual  rendition  of  services. 

Gerry,  Ames,  and  Lawrence  replied  at  great  length^ 


DEBATE  ON  THE  FUNDING  SYSTEM.     169 

advocating  the  claims  of  holders  by  purchase  to  payment  CHAPTER 

in  full.      At  the  same  time,  Gerry  expressed  his  willing- __ 

ness  to  make  up  to  that  part  of  the  army  which  had  been  1790 
paid  in  certificates  the  full  amount  of  their  loss  by  de- 
preciation, which,  according  to  a  calculation  which   he 
submitted,  would  not  require  more  than  two  millions  of 
dollars.      Bland  favored  that  plan. 

If  the  public  were  to  be  taxed  to  the  full  amount  of 
the  debt,  Lawrence  thought  the  money  ought  to  go  to 
the  present  holders.  Burke  took  the  same  side.  He 
thought  that  at  least  the  officers  of  the  army  had  been 
well  enough  paid  already,  in  honors,  if  not  in  money. 
"In  South  Carolina,  no  other  class  of  citizens  stood  any 
chance  in  competition  with  officers.  They  were  promot- 
ed to  the  stations  of  governor,  of  lieutenant  governor,  of 
privy  counselors  ;  they  were  to  be  found  presiding  in  the 
tribunals  of  justice,  in  the  Legislature,  and  on  the  floor 
of  Congress ;  and  the  gratitude  of  the  people  followed 
them  even  in  the  private  walks  and  ordinary  occupations 
of  life.  He  mentioned  this  as  an  answer  for  the  people, 
to  clear  them  from  the  charge  of  ingratitude." 

"  If  paper,"  said  Madison,  in  reply,  "  can  discharge 
just  debts,  payable  in  gold  and  silver,  we  can  exonerate 
ourselves  not  only  from  those  due  to  the  original  credit- 
ors, but  from  the  claims  of  the  assignees  also.  So  far  * 
as  paper  goes,  it  is  they  who  already  possess  that  com- 
pensation. If  honors  can  discharge  the  debt,  they  too 
have  received  civil  honors.  Look  round  to  every  state 
in  the  Union,  and  you  will  see  these  assignees  sharing 
distinctions  equal  to  those  bestowed  on  the  original  cred- 
itors. But  the  debt  due  in  gold  and  silver  is  not  pay- 
able in  honors,  nor  appointments,  nor  paper."  He  in- 
sisted that  the  objections  to  the  practicability  of  his 
scheme,  a  good  deal  dwelt  upon  by  several  speakers, 


170  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  were  not  solid.      The  records  of  the  five  great  staff  de> 
_______  partments  of  the  Continental  army,  and  those  of  the  com- 

1790.  missioners  of  loans,  would  furnish  most  of  the  necessary 
information.  Cases  in  which  the  certificates  had  issued 
in  names  other  than  those  of  the  actual  creditors  might 
be  adjudicated  by  a  board  with  full  powers  for  that  pur- 
pose. 

Equitable  as  Madison's  proposition  might  seem  to  be, 
it  was  supported  by  only  thirteen  votes  to  thirty-six 
against  it,  including  among  the  negatives  all  the  law- 
yers and  merchants  in  the  House.  The  few  who  sup- 
ported Madison  were  all  planters,  and  most  of  them  his 
own  colleagues.  There  were,  indeed,  very  serious  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  carrying  such  a  scheme  into  exe- 
cution, but  the  principal  obstacle  was  of  a  different  char- 
acter. The  holders  of  the  certificates  had  the  great  ad- 
vantage of  having  in  hand  the  legal  evidence  of  a  liqui- 
dated debt ;  and  however  the  claim  of  the  original  credit- 
ors, subjected  to  loss  by  the  failure  of  the  government  to 
fulfill  its  obligations,  might,  in  abstract  equity,  be  equal- 
ly strong,  according  to  the  established  usages  of  law  and 
commerce,  and  the  uniform  tenor  of  prevailing  ideas,  it 
was  not  so  regarded.  The  one  was  considered  a  claim 
on  the  justice,  the  other  on  the  benevolence  of  Congress, 
and  it  was  insisted  that  the  nation  ought  to  DP.  just  be- 
fore it  undertook  to  be  generous.  With  this  disadvant- 
age to  begin  with,  what  chance  had  the  mass  of  poor 
persons,  soldiers  and  farmers,  without  organization  and 
unknown  to  each  other,  who  had  sold  their  certificates 
at  a  loss,  as  compared  with  the  wealthy  and  watchful 
body  of  the  present  holders,  able  to  bring  so  many  influ- 
ences  to  bear,  and  active  in  doing  so  ? 

Madison's  motion  being  rejected,  Fitzsimmons's  sec- 
ond resolution  was  carried,  as  was  also  the  third,  which 


DEBATE  ON  THE  FUNDING  SYSTEM.      17] 

affirmed  that  the  interest  of  the  domestic  debt  ought  to  CHAPTE? 

ii. 
be  provided  for  on  the  same  terms  with  the  principal.  '. 

Upon  the  fourth  resolution,  that  respecting  the  as-  1790. 
sumption  of  the  state  debts,  there  arose  a  vehement  de-  Fel>>  22' 
bate,  which  grew  presently  to  be  very  acrimonious. 

The  amount  of  the  debts  with  which  the  individual 
states  had  found  themselves  burdened  at  the  close  of 
the  late  war,  and  also  the  policy  since  pursued  as  to 
the  discharge  of  the  interest  and  principal,  had  been 
very  various.  Massachusetts  and  South  Carolina,  not- 
withstanding a  considerable  reduction  of  principal  by 
sales  of  lands,  still  owed  upward  of  five  millions  each. 
Hitherto  Massachusetts  had  been  enabled  to  pay  the  in- 
terest, though  not  quite  to  the  full  amount,  nor  very 
punctually,  out  of  the  proceeds  of  an  impost  on  goods 
imported  and  an  excise  on  certain  articles  of  consump- 
tion. The  impost  was  lost  already  by  the  adoption  of 
the  Federal  Constitution  ;  and  should  a  federal  excise  be 
imposed,  as  the  secretary's  report  recommended,  the  state 
excise  would  have  to  be  given  up,  as  two  taxes  of  that 
kind  could  hardly  be  collected  simultaneously.  Op- 
posed hitherto  in  almost  every  thing  else,  the  states  of 
Massachusetts  and  South  Carolina  agreed  in  warmly 
supporting  the  assumption  of  the  state  debts.  Connect- 
icut, whose  debt  was  about  two  millions,  was  in  favor 
of  the  same  policy. 

The  debt  of  Virginia  had  been  greatly  reduced  by 
funding  the  outstanding  state  paper  money  at  a  thou. 
sand  for  one,  and  by  extensive  sales  of  Kentucky  lands. 
Land  warrants,  in  fact,  had  been  disposed  of  sufficient 
to  cover  that  entire  district  two  or  three  times  over. 
The  Virginia  debt  stood  at  present  at  about  three  mill- 
ions and  a  half,  upon  which  the  interest  had  been  regu- 
larly paid  by  means  of  a  tax  on  imports.  Considering 


172  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  herself  as  having  done  much  more  than  any  other  state 
.  to  relieve  her  own  embarrassments,  Virginia  was  strong. 
1790.  ly  opposed  to  the  assumption,  as  a  measure  by  which  she 
would  lose  more  than  she  would  gain.  To  this  might 
be  added  political  objections  to  it,  as  tending  to  an  aug- 
mentation of  the  influence  of  the  federal  government. 
Maryland,  which  owed  less  than  a  million,  was  inclined 
to  the  same  view.  Pennsylvania,  whose  debt  was  less 
than  two  millions,  the  interest  upon  which  had  all  been 
regularly  paid,  seemed  to  tend  in  the  same  direction  , 
but  a  part  of  her  members  supported  the  assumption  on 
federal  grounds.  It  was  also  supported  by  New  York 
and  New  Jersey,  the  one  owing  considerably  more,  the 
other  considerably  less  than  a  million.  Georgia  and 
New  Hampshire,  whose  debts  were .  small,  took  the  op- 
posite side.  The  debt  of  Delaware  was  trifling,  but  Vi- 
ning,  the  able  representative  of  that  state,  supported  the 
assumption  as  a  federal  measure. 

The  unsettled  condition,  of  the  accounts  between  the 
states  and  the  Union  left  ample  room  for  presumptions 
on  both  sides.  It  was  argued  in  favor  of  the  assumption 
that,  when  the  final  settlement  came  to  be  made,  it 
would  turn  out  that  the  Union  was  indebted  to  the 
states  in  just  about  the  amounts  which  it  was  now  pro- 
posed to  assume,  the  debts  of  the  states  being  a  pretty 
good  test  of  their  relative  exertions  in  the  common  cause. 
That  settlement  was  now  going  on  by  a  board  constituted 
by  the  late  Continental  Congress,  a  provision  for  filling 
vacancies  in  it  having  been  made  by  an  act  of. the  for- 
mer session.  These  state  debts  were  equally  meritorious 
with  those  of  the  Union,  and  the  whole  might  best  be 
provided  for  by  one  common  system,  thus  avoiding  any 
clash  in  the  matter  of  taxes  between  the  states  and  tho 
Union,  and  the  heart-burnings  and  jealousies  which  migh* 


DEBATE  ON  THE  FUNDING  SYSTEM.     \  7  3 

otherwise  arise  between  state  and  federal  creditors.      Not  CHAPTER 

to  assume  would  indeed  be  highly  unjust,  since  the  tax- 1 

ation  necessary  to  meet  the  interest  on  the  federal  debt  1790. 
would  effectually  disable  the  states  to  provide  for  their 
own.  Even  hitherto  the  state  interest  had  been  but 
partially  met,  notwithstanding  the  resources  of  duties  on 
imports,  and,  in  some  states,  of  paper  money,  both  of 
which  were  now  gone. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  was  said  to  be  very  unjust  that 
states  which  had  regularly  paid  the  interest,  and  had  ex- 
erted themselves  to  reduce  the  principal  of  their  debts, 
should  be  called  upon  to  make  up  for  the  deficiencies  of 
their  dilatory  neighbors.  That  the  state  debts  afforded 
any  probable  test  of  the  balances  of  account  between  the 
states  and  the  Union  was  denied  ;  indeed,  the  probability, 
should  the  assumption  take  place,  that  any  such  settle- 
ment would  ever  be  made,  was  pointedly  called  in  ques- 
tion. Certain  items  of  the  state  debts,  the  cost  of  the 
unfortunate  Massachusetts  expedition  to  Penobscot,  the 
purchase  of  a  state  frigate  by  South  Carolina,  the  sum 
allowed  by  Pennsylvania  as  an  indemnity  to  the  Penn 
family,  and  the  certificates  issued  by  New  York  for  the 
benefit  of  certain  original  owners  of  confiscated  estates, 
were  pointed  out  as  especially  unfit  to  be  assumed  by 
the  Union.  Comparisons  were  also  made  as  to  the  rela- 
tive merits  and  sacrifices  of  the  states,  the  debate  at 
times  becoming  very  warm. 

The  assumption  was  supported  by  Lawrence,  Ames, 
Sedgwick,  Sherman,  Clymer,  Burke,  Smith  of  South 
Carolina,  Fitzsimmons,  and  Gerry.  It  was  strongly 
opposed  by  Stone  of  Maryland,  Livermore,  Jackson,  and 
White.  Madison  proposed  that,  simultaneously  with  the 
assumption,  effectual  provision  should  be  made  for  liqui- 
dating the  accounts  between  the  states  and  the  Union, 


174  HISTORY   OF    THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  White  wished  to  limit  the  assumption  to  such  amounts 

as  should  appear  on  settlement  to  have  been  advanced 

1790.  beyond  the  quota  of  the  states.  But  this  latter  prop- 
osition failed,  as  did  another  motion  of  Madison's,  that 
payments  hitherto  made  to  state  creditors  should  be  in- 
cluded in  the  assumption  as  a  part  of  the  state  debts. 
By  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  the  appraised  value 
of  houses  and  cultivated  lands  was  to  form  the  basis  foi 
distributing  among  the  states  the  expenses  of  the  general 
government,  including  those  of  the  late  war.  As  the 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  such  an  appraisement  had  hith- 
erto prevented  its  being  made,  Ames  proposed  to  substi- 
tute for  it  that  federal  ratio  of  population,  including  all 
the  freemen  and  three  fifths  of  the  slaves,  the  basis  under 
the  new  Constitution  of  representation  and  direct  taxes. 
This  motion  prevailed,  and  the  resolutions  of  which  it 
formed  a  part  became  the  foundation  of  an  act  providing 
for  a  final  settlement  of  accounts  between  the  states  and 
the  Union. 

March  9.  The  resolution  to  assume  the  state  debts  finally  passed 
the  committee  by  a  vote  of  thirty-one  to  twenty-six  ;  but 
the  members  elect  from  North  Carolina  who  had  not  yet- 
taken  their  seats  were  now  daily  expected,  and  as  thoy 
were  known  to  be  strongly  opposed  to  the  assumption,  a 
speedy  reversal  of  this  vote  was  confidently  relied  upon. 
In  the  midst  of  the  agitation  as  to  the  public  debt,  the 
House  became  involved  in  another  discussion  still  more 
exciting,  in  reference  to  slavery  and  the  slave  trade. 
Slavery  still  existed  in  every  state  of  the  Union  except 
in  Massachusetts.  A  clause  in  the  Constitution  of  that 
state,  declaring  all  men  to  be  born  free  and  equal,  insert- 
ed for  the  express  purpose  of  tacitly  abolishing  slavery, 
had  been  judicially  decided  (1783)  to  have  that  effect, 
A  few  months  previously  to  the  final  adoption  of  the  Con« 


SLAVERY    IN    THE    STATES.  ^75 

stitution  of  Massachusetts,  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  CHAPTER 
had  passed  an  act  (1780)  introducing  a  system  of  grad- 
uai  emancipation,  prohibiting  the  further  importation  1790. 
of  slaves  (and  by  a  subsequent  act  their  exportation), 
and  assuring  freedom  to  all  persons  thereafter  born  in 
that  state  or  brought  into  it,  except  runaways  from 
other  states  and  the  servants  of  travelers  and  others  not 
remaining  above  six  months.  This  Pennsylvania  sys- 
tem of  gradual  emancipation  had  been  imitated  in  the 
states  of  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and  New  Hamp- 
shire. The  other  eight  states  retained  their  old  colonial 
slave-holding  systems.  But  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Delaware,  Maryland,  and  Virginia  had  prohibited  the 
further  importation  of  slaves,  and  in  Virginia  and  Mary- 
land the  old  colonial  restrictions  on  emancipation  had 
been  repealed,  leaving  thereby  full  play,  and  not  without 
considerable  results,  to  the  conscience  and  generosity  of 
the  slave-holders.  Jefferson  and  Wythe,  as  commis- 
sioners to  revise  the  statute  law  of  Virginia,  had  agreed 
upon  a  bill  for  gradual  emancipation ;  but  when  the 
revision  of  the  statutes  came  before  the  House  of  Dele- 
gates (1785),  Jefferson  was  absent  as  minister  at  Paris, 
those  who  shared  his  opinions  thought  that  the  favor- 
able moment  had  not  arrived,  and  the  bill  was  not 
brought  forward.  Even  in  New  York,  an  attempt 
(1785)  to  pass  an  act  for  the  gradual  abolition  of  slav- 
ery had  failed  to  succeed.  Yet  in  all  the  states,  from 
North  Carolina  northward,  warm  opponents  of  slavery 
and  ardent  advocates  for  emancipation  were  more  or  less 
numerous,  including  many  distinguished  citizens.  In- 
fluenced, perhaps,  by  the  sarcasms  thrown  out  in  the  Fed- 
eral Convention,  Rhode  Island,  shortly  after  the  adjourn- 
ment of  that  body,  had  passed  a  law  (Oct.,  1787)  for- 
bidding its  citizens  to  engage  in. the  slave  trade.  The 


176  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  kidnapping  of  three  colored   persons   at  Boston,  enticea 

on  board  a  vessel  and  carried  to  the  West  Indies,  where 

1790  they  were  sold  as  slaves,  produced  a  great  excitement  in 
Massachusetts,  and  occasioned  (1788)  a  similar  prohib- 
itory act  there — an  example  speedily  imitated  by  Con- 
necticut and  Pennsylvania.  But  as  the  Federal  Consti- 
tution gave  to  Congress  the  exclusive  regulation  of  com- 
merce, it  had  become  very  questionable  whether  these 
laws  retained  any  force. 

Nor  was  the  opposition  to  slavery  confined  to  legisla- 
tive acts  alone.  The  United  Synod  of  New  York  and 
Philadelphia,  while  constituting  themselves  as  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  America, 
had  issued  a  pastoral  letter  (1788),  in  which  they 
strongly  recommended  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  the 
instruction  of  the  negroes  in  letters  and  religion.  The 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  lately  introduced  and  rap- 
idly increasing,  especially  in  Maryland  and  Virginia, 
had  even  gone  so  far  as  to  disqualify  slave-holders  to 
be  -members  of  their  communion.  Coke,  the  first  bish- 
op, was  exceedingly  zealous  on  this  subject ;  but  the 
rule  was  afterward  relaxed.  In  consequence  of  the  ef- 
forts and  preaching  of  Woolman  and  others,  opposi- 
tion to  slavery  had  come  to  be  a  settled  tenet  of  the 
Quakers. 

The  same  opinions  had  been  taken  up  as  matters  of 
humanity  and  policy  as  well  as  of  religion.  A  society 
"  for  promoting  the  abolition  of  slavery,  for  the  relief  of 
free  negroes  unlawfully  held  in  bondage,  and  for  improv- 
ing the  condition  of  the  African  race,"  had  been  organ- 
ized in  Philadelphia  (1787),  of  which  Franklin  was 
president,  and  Dr.  Rush  and  Tench  Coxe  secretaries.  A 
similar  society  had  been  formed  in  New  York,  of  which 
Jay  was  an  active  member  ;  and  this  example  already 


ANTI-SLAVERY    PETITIONS.  ^77 

had  been  or  soon  was  imitated  in  all  the  states  from  Vir-  CHAPTER 
ginia  northward.  

A  few  days  after  the  commencement  of  the  debate  on  1790. 
the  public  debt,  a  petition  from  the  yearly  meeting  of  Feb>  1L 
the  Quakers  of  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware,  seconded  by 
another  from  the  Quakers  of  New  York,  had  been  laid 
before  the  House,  in  which  it  was  suggested  whether, 
notwithstanding  "  seeming  impediments,"  occasioned  by 
"  the  influence  and  artifice  of  particular  persons,  gov- 
erned by  the  narrow,  mistaken  views  of  self-interest," 
it  was  not  within  the  power  of  Congress  "  to  exercise 
justice  and  mercy,  which,  if  adhered  to,"  the  petitioners 
could  not  doubt,  "  must  produce  the  abolition  of  the 
slave  trade." 

Hartley  moved  the  reference  of  this  memorial  to  a 
special  committee.  Supported  by  Madison  and  his  col- 
leagues, Parker,  Page,  and  White,  by  Lawrence,  Sedg- 
wick,  Boudinot,  Sherman,  and  Gerry,  this  motion  was 
violently  opposed  by  Smith  of  South  Carolina,  Jackson, 
Tucker,  Baldwin,  and  Burke,  not  without  many  sneers 
at  "the  men  in  the  gallery" — the  Quaker  deputation  ap- 
pointed to  look  after  the  petition — "  who  had  come  here 
to  meddle  in  a  business  with  which  they  had  nothing  to 
do."  Finally,  on  a  suggestion  of  Clymer's,  supported  by 
one  of  the  rules  of  the  House,  the  memorial  was  suffered 
to  lie  over  till  the  next  day. 

At  the  opening  of  the  session  that  next  day,  another  Feb.  12 
petition  was  presented  relating  to  the  same  subject,  com- 
ing from  the  Pennsylvania  Society  for  the  Abolition  of 
Slavery.  It  was  signed  by  Franklin  as  president — one 
of  the  last  public  acts  of  his  long  and  diversified  ca- 
reer. He  died  within  a  few  weeks  afterward:  "That 
mankind,"  said  this  memorial,  "  are  all  formed  by  the 
same  Almighty  Being,  alike  objects  of  his  care,  and 
IV.— M 


178         HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  equally  designed  for   the   enjoyment  of  happiness,   the 
_  Christian  religion  teaches  us  to  believe,  and  the  political 

1790.  creed  of  Americans  fully  coincides  with  that  position. 
Your  memorialists,  particularly  engaged  in  attending  to 
the  distresses  arising  from  slavery,  believe  it  their  indis- 
pensable duty  to  present  this  subject  to  your  notice. 
They  have  observed,  with  real  satisfaction,  that  many 
important  and  salutary  powers  are  vested  in  you  for  pro- 
moting the  welfare  and  securing  the  blessings  of  liberty 
to  the  people  of  the  United  States;  and  as  they  conceive 
that  these  blessings  ought  rightfully  to  be  administered, 
without  distinctions  of  color,  to  all  descriptions  of  people, 
so  they  indulge  themselves  in  the  pleasing  anticipation 
that  nothing  which  can  be  done  for  the  relief  of  the  unhap- 
py objects  of  their  care  will  be  either  omitted  or  delayed. 
11  From  a  persuasion  that  equal  liberty  was  originally 
the  portion,  and  is  still  the  birthright  of  all  men,  and 
influenced  by  the  strong  ties  of  humanity  and  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Constitution,  your  memorialists  conceive 
themselves  bound  to  use  all  justifiable  endeavors  to  loosen 
the  bonds  of  slavery,  and  promote  a  general  enjoyment 
of  the  blessings  of  freedom.  Under  these  impressions, 
they  earnestly  entreat  your  serious  attention  to  the  sub- 
ject of  slavery,  that  you  will  be  pleased  to  countenance 
the  restoration  of  liberty  to  those  unhappy  men  who 
alone,  in  this  land  of  freedom,  are  degraded  into  per- 
petual bondage,  and  who,  amid  the  general  joy  of  sur- 
rounding freemen,  are  groaning  in  servile  subjection: 
that  you  will  devise  means  for  removing  this  inconsist- 
ency from  the  character  of  the  American  people  ;  that 
you  will  promote  mercy  and  justice  toward  this  distressed 
race ;  and  that  you  will  step  to  the  very  verge  of  the 
power  vested  in  you  for  discouraging  every  species  of 
traffic  in  the  persons  of  our  fellow-men." 


POWER  OF  CONGRESS  OVER  SLAVERY.    179 

Immediately  after  the  reading  of  this  petition,  which  CHAPTER 

could  not  have  much  tended  to  soothe  the  excitement 

of  the  day  before,  Hartley  called  up  the  Quaker  memo-  1790. 
rial,  and  moved  its  commitment.  In  opposition  to  this 
motion,  Tucker  and  Burke  took  the  ground  that  the 
memorial  contained  an  unconstitutional  request,  as  Con- 
gress had  no  power  to  meddle  with  the  slave  trade  for 
twenty  years  to  come.  Tucker  pronounced  it  *<  a  mis- 
chievous attempt,  an  improper  interference,  at  the  best, 
an  act  of  imprudence."  Burke  was  certain  that  the 
commitment  "  would  sound  an  alarm  and  blow  the 
trumpet  of  sedition  through  the  Southern  States." 

"  I  can  not  entertain  a  doubt,"  said  Scott,  in  reply, 
"  that  the  memorial  is  strictly  agreeable  to  the  Constitu- 
tion. It  respects  a  part  of  the  duty  particularly  assigned 
to  us  by  that  instrument.  We  can  at  present  lay  our 
hands  on  a  small  tax  of  ten  dollars.  I  would  take  that; 
and  if  that  is  all  we  can  do,  we  must  be  content,  I  am 
sorry  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  did  not  go  further, 
and  enable  us  to  interdict  the  slave  trade  altogether,  for 
I  look  upon  it  to  be  one  of  the  most  abominable  things 
on  earth  ;  and  if  there  were  neither  God  nor  devil,  I 
should  oppose  it  on  principles  of  humanity  and  the  law 
of  Nature.  For  my  part,  I  can  not  conceive  how  any 
person  can  be  said  to  acquire  a  property  in  another. 
The  petitioners  view  the  subject  in  a  religious  light ; 
but  I  stand  not  in  need  of  religious  motives  to  induce 
me  to  reprobate  the  traffic  in  human  flesh.  Perhaps,  in 
our  legislative  capacity,  we  can  go  no  further  than  to 
impose  a  duty  of  ten  dollars  ;  but  I  do  not  know  how 
far  I  might  go  if  I  was  one  of  the  judges  of  the  United 
States,  and  these  people  were  to  come  before  me  and 
claim  their  emancipation.  I  am  sure  I  would  go  as  far  as 
T  could."  Jackson  maintained,  in  reply,  "  the  qualified 


[80  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  property  of  the  master  in  his  slave  ;"  he  referred  to  the 
'  example  of  the  republics  of  antiquity ;  and  relied  "  on 
1790.  the  whole  current  of  the  Bible  from  Genesis  to  Revela- 
tions," as  proving  that  religion  was  not  against  slavery. 

Sherman  "  could  see  no  difficulty  in  committing  the 
memorial.  It  was  probable  the  committee  would  un- 
derstand their  business,  and  perhaps  they  might  bring 
in  such  a  report  as  would  be  satisfactory  to  gentlemen 
on  both  sides  of  the  House."  Baldwin  "  was  sorry  that 
a  subject  of  so  delicate  a  nature,  as  respected  some  of 
the  states,  had  been  brought  before  Congress.  Such 
gentlemen  as  had  been  present  at  the  formation  of  the 
Constitution  could  not  but  recollect  the  pain  and  diffi- 
culty which  this  subject  had  then  occasioned.  So  ten- 
der were  the  Southern  members  on  this  point,  that  the. 
Convention  had  well-nigh  broken  up  without  coming  to 
any  determination.  From  extreme  desire  to  preserve 
the  Union  and  to  establish  an  efficient  government,  mu- 
tual concessions  had  resulted,  concessions  which  the 
'  Constitution  had  jealously  guarded.  The  moment  we 
go  to  jostle  on  that  ground,  I  fear  we  shall  feel  it  trem- 
ble under  our  feet.  The  clause  in  the  Constitution,  that 
no  capitation  or  direct  tax  should  be  laid,  except  in  pro- 
portion to  the  census,  was  intended  to  prevent  Congress 
from  laying  any  special  tax  upon  slaves,  lest  they  might 
in  that  way  so  burden  the  owners  as  to  bring  about  a 
general  emancipation.  Gentlemen  have  said  that  this 
petition  does  not  pray  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade; 
I  think,  sir,  it  prays  for  nothing  else,  and  that,  conse- 
quently, we  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  it,  than  if  it 
prayed  us  to  establish  an  order  of  nobility  or  a  national 
religion." 

The  same  ground,  the  unconstitutionality  of  the  object 
prayed  for,  was  relied  upon  by  Smith  of  South  Carolina 


ANTI-SLAVERY    PETITIONS.  1  g  J 

as  a  reason  for  not  committing  the  memorial.  "  Not-  CHAPTER 
withstanding  all  the  calmness  with  which  some  gentle-  ' 
men  have  viewed  the  subject,  they  will  find  that  the  1790. 
mere  discussion  of  it  will  create  alarm.  We  have  been 
told  that,  if  so,  we  should  have  avoided  discussion  by  say- 
ing nothing.  But  it  was  riot  for  that  purpose  we  were 
sent  here.  We  look  upon  this  measure  as  an  attack 
upon  property  ;  it  is,  therefore,  our  duty  to  oppose  it  by 
every  means  in  our  power.  When  we  entered  into  a 
political  connection  with  the  other  states,  this  property 
was  there.  It  had  been  acquired  under  a  former  gov- 
ernment conformably  to  the  laws  and  Constitution,  and 
every  attempt  to  deprive  us  of  it  must  be  in  the  nature 
of  an  ex  post  facto  law,  and,  as  such,  forbidden  by  our 
political  compact."  Like  the  other  speakers  on  that 
side,  Smith  indulged  in  a  good  many  slurs  on  the  Quak- 
ers. His  constituents  wanted  no  lessons  in  religion  and 
morality,  and  least  of  all  from  such  teachers. 

Madison,  Page,  Gerry,  and  Boudinot  advocated  the 
commitment.  As  to  the  alarm  which  it  was  said  would 
be  produced  by  committing  the  memorial,  Page  thought 
there  might  be  greater  ground  for  alarm  should  they  re- 
fuse to  commit  it.  "  Placing  himself  in  the  case  of  a 
slave,  on  hearing  that  Congress  had  refused  to  listen  to 
the  decent  suggestions  of  a  respectable  part  of  the  com- 
munity, he  should  infer  that  the  general  government, 
from  which  great  good  was  expected  to  every  class,  had 
shut  their  ears  against  the  voice  of  humanity.  If  any 
thing  could  induce  him  to  rebel,  it  must  be  a  stroke  like 
this,  impressing  on  his  mind  all  the  horrors  of  despair. 
Were  he  told,  on  the  other  hand,  that  application  was 
made  in  his  behalf,  and  that  Congress  were  willing  to 
hear  what  could  be  urged  in  favor  of  discouraging  the 
importation  of  his  fellow- wretches,  he  would  still  trust  in 


[82  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  their  justice  and  humanity,  and  patiently  await  then 
.  decision.       Presuming    that    these    unfortunate    people 

1790.  would  reason  in  the  same  way,  he  thought  that  to  com- 
mit the  petition  was  the  likeliest  means  to  avert  danger. 
He  lived  in  a  state  which  had  the  misfortune  to  have  in 
her  bosom  a  great  number  of  slaves.  He  held  many 
himself,  and  was,  he  believed,  as  much  interested  in  the 
business  as  any  gentleman  in  South  Carolina  or  Georgia. 
Even  were  he  determined  to  hold  them  in  eternal  bond- 
age, he  should  feel  no  uneasiness  at  the  reference  of  the 
memorial,  relying  on  the  virtue  of  Congress,  and  their 
disinclination  to  exercise  any  unconstitutional  power." 
"  Though  Congress  were  restricted  by  the  Constitution 
from  immediately  abolishing  the  slave  trade,  yet  there 
were  a  variety  of  ways,"  so  Madison  remarked,  "  by 
which  they  might  countenance  the  abolition  of  that 
traffic.  They  might,  for  example,  respecting  the  intro- 
duction of  slaves  into  the  new  states  to  be  formed  out  of 
the  Western  Territory,  make  regulations  such  as  were 
beyond  their  power  in  relation  to  the  old  settled  states, 
an  object  which  he  thought  well  worthy  of  consideration." 
Gerry  "never  contemplated  this  subject  without  re- 
flecting what  his  own  feelings  would  be  were  himself, 
his  children,  or  his  friends  placed  in  the  same  deplorable 
circumstances.  He  thought  the  subject-matter  of  the 
memorial  clearly  within  the  powers  of  Congress.  They 
had  the  power  to  lay  at  once  a  duty  of  ten  dollars  per 
head  on  imported  slaves.  They  had  the  right,  if  they 
saw  proper,  to  propose  to  the  Southern  States  to  pur- 
chase the  whole  of  their  slaves,  and  their  resources  in  the 
Western  Territory  might  furnish  them  with  the  means. 
He  did  not  intend  to  propose  any  scheme  of  that  kind, 
but  only  referred  to  it,  to  show  that  Congress  had  a  right 
to  deal  with  the  matter." 


POWER  OF  CONGRESS  OVER  SLAVERY. 

The  question  being  taken  by  yeas  and  nays,  the  ref-  CHAPTER 

erence   was   carried,    forty-three   to   eleven.       Of  these . 

eleven,  six  were  from  Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  being  1790. 
all  the  members  present  from  those  two  states,  two  were 
from  Virginia,  two  from  Maryland,  and  one  from  New 
York.      North  Carolina  was  not  yet  represented. 

The  special  committee  to  whom  the  memorial  was 
referred,  consisting  of  one  member  from  each  of  the  fol- 
lowing states,  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  Connect- 
icut, New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Vir- 
ginia, after  a  month's  delay  brought  in  a  report  con-  March  lo 
sisting  of  seven  resolutions :  1st.  That  the  general  gov- 
ernment was  expressly  restrained,  until  the  year  1808, 
from  prohibiting  the  importation  of  any  persons  whom 
any  of  the  existing  states  might  till  that  time  think 
proper  to  admit.  2d.  That,  by  a  fair  construction  of  the 
Constitution,  Congress  was  equally  restrained  from  inter- 
fering to  emancipate  slaves  within  the  states,  such  slaves 
having  been  born  there,  or  having  been  imported  within 
the  period  mentioned.  3d.  That  Congress  had  no  power 
to  interfere  in  the  internal  regulation  of  particular  states 
relative  to  the  instruction  of  slaves  in  the  principles  of 
morality  and  religion,  to  their  comfortable  clothing,  ac- 
commodation, and  subsistence,  to  the  regulation  of  mar- 
riages or  the  violation  of  marital  rights,  to  the  separation 
of  children  and  parents,  to  a  comfortable  provision  in 
cases  of  age  or  infirmity  or  to  the  seizure,  transporta- 
tion, and  sale  of  free  negroes ;  but  entertained  the  full- 
est confidence  in  the  wisdom  and  humanity  of  the  state 
Legislatures  that,  from  time  to  time,  they  would  revise 
their  laws,  and  promote  these  and  all  other  measures 
tending  to  the  happiness  of  the  slaves.  These  three  res- 
olutions were  of  a  negative  character,  designed  to  ap- 
pease the  alarm  of  the  Southern  members.  The  remain- 


<tg4  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  der  were  of  a  more  positive  cast.      The  fourth  asserted 

that  Congress  had  authority  to  levy  a  tax  of  ten  dollars, 

1790.  should  they  see  fit  to  exact  it,  upon  every  person  imported 
under  the  special  permission  of  any  of  the  states.  The 
fifth  declared  the  authority  of  Congress  to  interdict  or  tc 
regulate  the  African  slave  trade,  so  far  as  it  might  be 
carried  on  by  citizens  of  the  United  States  for  the  s-up- 
ply  of  foreign  countries,  and  also  to  provide  for  the  hu- 
mane treatment  of  slaves  while  on  their  passage  to  any 
ports  of  the  United  States  into  which  they  might  be  ad- 
mitted. The  sixth  asserted  the  right  of  Co-ngress  to  pro- 
hibit foreigners  from  fitting  out  vessels  in  the  United  States 
to  be  employed  in  the  supply  of  foreign  countries  with 
slaves  from  Africa.  The  seventh  expressed  an  intention 
on  the  part  of  Congress  to  exercise  their  authority  to  its 
full  extent  to  promote  the  humane  objects  aimed  at  in 
the  Quakers'  memorial. 

This  report  was  presented  the  day  after  the  Commit- 
tee of  the  Whole  had  disposed  of  Fitzsimmons's  resolu- 
tion in  relation  to  the  public  debt ;  and  the  excitement  as 
to  the  assumption  of  the  state  debts  had  by  no  means  sub- 
sided,  when  there  ensued  on  this  new  subject  a  six  days1 
discussion  of  a  character  still  more  angry  and  violent. 
March  16.  After  a  warm  speech  against  the  injustice  and  uncon- 
stitutional! ty  of  meddling  with  the  question  of  slavery  in 
any  shape,  Tucker  moved  to  strike  out  the  whole  report, 
and  to  substitute  for  it  a  simple  resolution,  refusing  to 
take  the  memorial  into  consideration  "  as  unconstitu- 
tional, and  tending  to  injure  some  of  the  states  of  the 
Union."  Jackson  seconded  the  motion  in  a  speech 
equally  warm,  to  which  Vining  replied.  But  this  mo- 
tion of  Tucker's,  after  a  good  deal  of  time  spent  upoo 
that  point,  was  declared  out  of  order. 

White  of  Virginia  moved  to  strike  out  the  first  reso« 


POWER  OF  CONGRESS  OVER  SLAVERY.    Jg^ 

iution  as  containing  a  definition  of  the  powers  of  Con-  CHAPTEB 

gress,   a  subject  not  referred  to  the  committee.      His 

colleague,  Moore,  passing  by  the  report,  attacked  the  1790. 
memorial  and  its  authors,  accusing  the  Quakers  of  har- 
boring runaway  slaves.  He  hoped  emancipation  would 
take  place  at  a  proper  time,  but  he  wished  to  have  it 
brought  about  by  other  means  than  by  the  influence  of 
people  who  had  been  inimical  to  independence.  Burke 
was  not  an  advocate  for  slavery,  but  he  wished  to  pre- 
serve the  tranquillity  of  the  Union,  which  this  unneces- 
sary and  impolitic  measure  bade  fair  to  throw  into  a 
state  of  confusion.  The  memorial  was  a  reflection  on 
the  Southern  States.  The  negroes  there  lived  better 
and  in  more  comfortable  houses  than  the  poor  of  Europe. 
He  referred  to  an  advertisement  which  he  had  lately  seen 
in  a  New  York  paper  of  a  woman  and  child  to  be  sold. 
That,  he  declared,  was  a  species  of  cruelty  unknown  in 
the  Southern  States.  There  the  negroes  have  property, 
horses,  cattle,  hogs,  and  furniture.  With  respect  to  their 
ceremony  of  marriage,  they  took  each  other  from  love 
and  friendship.  Though  eastern  gentlemen  expressed  so 
great  an  antipathy  to  this  species  of  property,  many  of 
them  who  settled  in  the  South  became  as  fond  of  it  as 
any  others — a  fling  to  which  Gerry  subsequently  replied 
that  the  Eastern  States  could  not  be  held  responsible  for 
the  misdoings  of  their  emigrant  citizens,  since  it  was  no 
uncommon  thing,  even  in  the  animal  world,  for  exotics 
to  degenerate. 

Smith  of  South  Carolina  exerted  his  utmost  efforts 
in  an  elaborate  defense  of  slavery  and  the  slave  trade, 
the  objections  to  which  he  considered  to  spring  from  a 
"  misguided  and  misinformed  humanity."  The  South- 
ern States  required  slaves  to  cultivate  their  lands,  which 
could  not  be  done  by  white  people.  A  white  laborer 


HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


CHAPTER  from  the  Northern  States  asks  two  dollars  per  day  when 
'  employed  in  any  of  the  Southern  States.  The  low  coun- 
1790.  tries,  in  which  rice  and  indigo  are  cultivated,  would  be 
deserted  if  emancipation  took  place  ;  and  what  would 
then  become  of  the  revenue  ?  To  set  the  slaves  loose 
would  be  a  curse  to  them.  A  plan  had  been  thought  of 
in  Virginia  of  shipping  them  off  as  soon  as  they  were 
freed,  and  this  was  called  humanity  !  Jefferson's  scheme 
for  gradual  emancipation,  as  set  forth  in  his  Notes  upon 
Virginia,  was  derided  as  impracticable.  Emancipation 
would  probably  result  in  an  exterminating  war.  If,  on 
the  other  hand,  a  mixture  of  blood  should  take  place,  we 
should  all  be  mulattoes  !  The  very  advocates  of  manu- 
mission held  the  blacks  in  contempt,  and  refused  to  asso- 
ciate with  them.  No  scheme  could  be  devised  to  stop 
the  increase  of  the  blacks,  except  a  law  to  prevent  the 
intercourse  of  the  sexes,  or  Herod's  scheme  of  putting 
the  children  to  death.  The  toleration  of  slavery  was 
said  to  bring  down  reproach  upon  America,  but  that  re- 
proach belongs  only  to  those  who  tolerate  it,  and  he  was 
ready  to  bear  his  share.  It  was  said,  also,  that  slavery 
vitiates  and  debases  the  mind  of  the  slave-holder,  but 
where  is  the  proof?  Do  the  citizens  of  the  South  ex- 
hibit more  ferocity  in  their  manners,  more  barbarity  in 
their  dispositions,  than  those  of  the  other  states  ?  Slav- 
ery was  first  introduced  into  the  West  Indies  by  Las 
Casas  from  motives  of  humanity.  The  French  promote 
the  slave  trade  by  premiums  ;  and  are  not  the  French  a 
polished  people,  sensible  of  the  rights  of  mankind,  and 
actuated  by  just  sentiments  ?  The  Spaniards  encourage 
slavery,  and  they  are  people  of  the  nicest  honor,  pro- 
verbially so.  The  Greeks  and  Romans  held  slaves,  and 
are  not  their  glorious  achievements  still  held  up  as  in- 
citements  to  great  and  magnanimous  actions  ?  Sparta 


POWER  OF  CONGRESS  OVER  SLAVERY.    JQ7 

teemed  with  slaves  at  the  time  of  her  greatest  fame  as  a  CHAPTEF 
valiant  republic.      Much  had  been  said  of  the  cruel  treat-  . 
ment  of  slaves  in  the  Southern  States  and  the  West  In-  1790. 
dies.      As  to  the  Southern  States,  from  experience  and 
information,  he  denied  the  fact ;   he  believed  in  his  con- 
science that  the  slaves  in  South  Carolina  were  a  happier 
people  than  the  lower  order  of  whites  in  many  countries 
he  had  visited.      As  to  the  West  Indies,  Lord  Rodney 
and  Admiral  Barrington,  both  of  whom  had  spent  some 
time  there,  had  lately  declared  in   the   House  of  Com- 
mons that  they  had  never  heard  of  a  negro  being  cruelly 
treated,  and  that  they  should  rejoice  exceedingly  if  the 
English  day  laborers  were  half  as  happy. 

The  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  would  cause  an  Af- 
rican massacre,  for  it  was  well  known  to  be  the  custom 
to  put  to  death  all  such  slaves  as  were  brought  to  the 
coast  and  not  sold.  The  cruelty  of  the  method  of  trans- 
portation was  alleged  as  a  motive  for  abolishing  the  traf- 
fic ;  but  surely  the  merchants  would  so  far  attend  to 
their  own  interests  as  to  preserve  the  lives  and  health  of 
the  slaves  on  the  passage.  All  voyages  must  be  attended 
with  inconveniences,  and  those  from  Africa  to  America 
not  less  than  others.  The  confinement  on  board  was  no 
more  than  was  necessary.  The  space  allowed  was  more 
than  to  soldiers  in  a  camp  ;  for  the  cubical  measurement 
of  air  breathed  by  encamped  soldiers  fell  below  that  allow- 
ed in  the  slave-ships,  in  the  ratio  of  seventeen  to  thirty. 

So  long  as  attacks  upon  slavery  and  the  slave  trade 
had  been  merely  of  a  speculative  character,  confined  to 
the  pages  of  philosophers,  travelers,  and  historians,  no- 
body had  thought  of  defending  them.  But  now  that 
there  seemed  danger  of  legislative  interference,  they  had 
found  many  strenuous  advocates  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic,  oi  whose  reasoning  Smith's  speech  may  be  takea 


188  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  as  a  specimen  and  a  summary.      Of  the  new  argument? 

lately  put  forth  on  this  subject  in  England,  he  was  evi- 

1790.  dently  a  master. 

Baldwin  "  was  in  hopes  that  the  experience  of  the 
House  had  convinced  them  of  the  impropriety  of  entering 
at  all  on  this  business.  It  was  a  reckless  wandering 
without  guidance,  and  the  longer  it  was  continued,  the 
more  inextricable  their  perplexities  would  become.  The 
same  memorial,  he  was  informed,  had  been  presented  to 
the  Senate,  but  they  had  taken  no  notice  of  it.  They  had 
even  negatived  a  motion  that  it  should  lie  upon  the  table  ; 
they  would  not  blot  their  paper  with  the  subject  at  all. 
He  hoped  this  House  would  imitate  the  wisdom  of  the 
Senate,  and  pursue  the  subject  no  further.  The  most 
important  business  of  the  Union,  the  plan  for  the  support 
of  the  public  credit,  the  division  of  North  Carolina  into 
collection  districts,  the  Post-office  Act,  the  Additional 
Revenue  Act.  on  which  nearly  half  the  resources  of  the 
year  depended,  were  all  pressing  for  early  attention,  and 
had  all  been  laid  aside  as  of  no  account,  had  all  been 
made  to  yield  to  this  report.  And  yet  no  bill  was  brought 
forward  to  be  enacted  into  a  law  ;  nothing  but  a  string 
of  propositions  in  exposition  of  different  articles  of  the 
Constitution,  but  which,  in  fact,  concluded  nothing. 

"  Another  reason  for  pursuing  this  business  no  further 
was  the  influence  it  manifestly  had  on  the  temper  of  the 
members.  For  several  days  the  House  had  been  in  a 
constant  storm.  This  subject  contained  materials  of  the 
most  combustible  character  ;  it  had  always  been  among 
the  most  contentious  in  the  government  of  the  country. 
In  different  parts  of  the  Union  there  was  a  well-known 
clashing  of  feelings  and  interests  on  this  subject.  It  was 
long  a  doubt  whether  it  would  not  form  an  insuperable 
bar  to  our  union  as  one  people,  under  one  government. 


POWER    OF    CONGRESS    OVER    SLAVERY.         j[  £  9 

In  the  Constitution  that  difficulty  had  been  surmounted,  CHAPTER 

and,  so  far  as  he  had  been  informed,  almost  to  universal 

satisfaction.  The  strength  and  violence  of  majority  had  1790 
been  expected  on  this  subject  ;  and  as  it  was  not  un- 
known on  which  side  the  majority  was,  security  against 
it  was  settled  deep  among  the  pillars  of  the  government. 
He  had  not  felt  the  least  alarm  that  the  rights  of  his 
constituents  would  be  disturbed.  The  House,  from  its 
constitution,  would  be  in  some  respects  a  mirror  to  reflect 
all  the  passions  of  the  people.  It  was  wise  that  the  feel- 
ings of  the  people  should  have  an  opportunity  to  bear  a 
part  in  legislation  ;  and,  though  sometimes  inconvenient, 
it  would  not  be  dangerous,  since  there  was  another  branch 
of  the  Legislature  whose  concurrence  was  necessary  in  all 
public  measures.  From  the  manner  in  which  that  body 
was  constituted,  and  from  experience  already  had,  he 
doubted  not  the  Senate  would  give  to  our  government 
that  wisdom  and  firmness  which  otherwise  it  would  not 
possess.  Acts  of  Congress  must  also  have  tho  approba- 
tion of  the  man  whom  the  people,  in  the  remotest  regions 
of  the  country,  regard  as  their  father.  After  all,  should 
there  be  any  doubt  of  the  constitutionality  of  the  meas- 
ures of  Congress,  they  can  not  be  carried  into  effect  with- 
out the  approval  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  composed  of  six  of  our  most  venerable  sages, 
forming  one  of  the  most  respectable  courts  upon  earth, 
possessing  our  confidence  as  well  from  the  independence 
of  their  position  as  from  the  long  experience  we  have 
had  of  their  wisdom.  On  this,  as  on  all  other  occasions, 
he  should  see  the  effects  of  majority  and  of  public  passion 
on  this  subject  totally  unconcerned.  The  uproar  of  con- 
tending waves  was  not  pleasant,  but  they  were  dashing 
against  a  rock." 
.This  speech  of  Baldwin's  was  on  a  motion  of  Benson's, 


j[90  HISTORY    OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  which  Baldwin  had  seconded,  to  recommit  the  report, 
.  with  a  view  to  give  the  whole  matter  the  go-by.      But 

1790.  the  majority  were  not  thus  to  be  driven  from  their  pur- 
pose.  The  motion  to  recommit  was  voted  down,  and  the 
report  was  then  taken  up  article  by  article.  The  three 
first  resolutions  (those  relating  to  the  power  of  Congress 
over  slavery  in  the  states)  were  adopted,  the  second  anJ 
third  being  compressed  into  one,  dropping  the  somewhat 
offensive  details,  but  retaining  the  substance.  Upon  the 
fourth  resolution — that  relating  to  the  ten  dollar  tax  on 
slaves  imported — the  struggle  was  renewed.  Tucker 
moved  to  strike  it  out,  in  which  he  was  supported  by 
Baldwin,  apparently  on  the  ground  that  the  resolution 
did  not  fairly  express  the  sense  of  the  Constitution. 
Hartley  took  this  occasion  to  defend  the  committee 
against  some  strictures  of  Burke's ;  but  Burke  still  in- 
sisted that  every  clause  in  the  report  was  drawn  in  am- 
biguous words,  so  as  to  involve  in  some  measure  such  an 
interpretation  as  the  Quakers  wished.  He  acquitted  the 
committee  of  any  bad  intention ;  yet  he  could  not  but 
think  that,  throughout  the  whole  business,  the  Southern 
members  had  been  very  hardly  dealt  by.  The  demand 
of  the  Quakers,  as  iniquitous  as  it  was  impolitic,  had 
been  referred  to  a  committee.  The  Southern  members, 
dragged,  as  it  were,  in  spite  of  their  remonstrances,  to 
the  bar  of  the  House,  had  been  set  to  defend  their  repu- 
tation and  property  against  the  Quakers,  for  whose  right 
to  offer  such  petitions  gentlemen  had  strenuously  con- 
tended. He  hoped  not  to  be  out  of  order  in  offering  an- 
other remark.  The  Southern  States  were  able  to  de- 
fend, and  he  hoped  would  defend,  their  property.  No 
doubt  those  states  would  pass  laws  punishing  as  incen- 
diaries any  Quakers  or  others  who  should  be  found  ex« 
citing  their  domestics  to  conspiracies  or  insurrections. 


POWER  OF  CONGRESS  OVER  SLAVERY.    191 

Page  was  in  favor  of  the  ten  dollar  duty,  not  only  as  CHAPTER 

a  proper  regulation  of  commerce,  but  to  show  that  Con- 

gress,  as  far  as  lies  in  their  power,  were  disposed  to  dis-  1790, 
courage  a  shameful  traffic.  He  was  willing,  however, 
to  strike  out  the  resolution,  and  that  for  two  reasons. 
Without  any  such  resolution,  Congress  would  still  have 
the  power  to  lay  the  tax.  Should  the  power  be  assert- 
ed, and  then  the  tax  not  be  laid,  it  would  look  too  much 
like  temporizing,  like  seeming  to  yield  to  the  demand  of 
the  Quakers,  while  in  heart  the  House  was  still  as  much 
against  it  as  those  by  whom  the  Quakers  and  their  me- 
morial had  been  so  heartily  abused. 

Smith  of  South  Carolina  believed  that  the  committee 
had  been  desirous  so  to  frame  this  report  as  to  please 
all  parties.  Some  clauses  were  meant  to  allay  the  fears 
of  the  Southern  members,  others  were  calculated  to  grat- 
ify the  memorialists.  The  clause  now  under  considera- 
tion seemed  to  be  intended  for  that  purpose  ;  yet  he  was 
persuaded  it  would  not  be  agreeable  to  the  Quakers. 
Their  nice  feelings  would  not  be  gratified  by  a  tax  of 
this  kind,  the  imposition  of  which  would  make  slaves  an 
article  of  commerce.  He  and  his  colleagues  had  been 
censured  for  making  this  business  so  serious.  But  was 
it  reasonable  to  require  them  to  give  up  the  right  to  be 
heard  ?  Had  the  Southern  members  been  silent  on  this 
occasion,  and  not  expressed  themselves  as  they  had  done, 
they  would  have  betrayed  the  charge  intrusted  to  them. 

On  the  question  of  striking  out  the  fourth  resolution, 
the  committee  was  equally  divided,  but  the  motion  was 
carried  by  the  casting  vote  of  Benson,  the  chairman. 

The  fifth  resolution,  affirming  the  power  of  Congress 
to  regulate  the  slave  trade,  was  vehemently  opposed  by 
Jackson,  Tucker,  and  Smith,  as  was  also  a  modification 
of  it  offered  by  Madison.  It  was  said  that,  under  pre- 


192  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  tense  of  regulating  the  trade,  Congress  might,  in  fact, 
.-  prohibit  it  entirely.      They  might  insist,  for  instance,  on 

1790.  such  expensive  accommodations  and  such  costly  pro- 
visions as  would  deter  merchants  from  engaging  in  it. 
They  might  prohibit  vessels  of  less  than  six  hundred 
tons  burden  to  engage  in  the  traffic,  whereas  no  vessel 
of  that  size  could  get  across  Charleston  bar. 

The  patience  of  some  of  the  Northern  members  began 
at  length  to  give  way.  Vining  of  Delaware  thought  the 
Southern  gentlemen  ought  to  be  satisfied  with  the  alter 
ations  already  made  to  please  them.  Some  respect  was 
due  to  the  committee  which  had  framed  the  report,  and  to 
the  prevailing  sentiment  of  the  country.  All  the  states, 
from  Virginia  to  New  Hampshire,  had  passed  laws  against 
the  slave  trade.  He  entered  also  into  a  defense  of  the 
Quakers,  many  of  whom  were  still  present  in  the  gal- 
lery, and  whose  treatment,  by  several  gentlemen,  he 
thought  cruel  and  unjustifiable.  But  this  onlv  served 
to  draw  out  from  the  fluent  Jackson  a  new  torrent  of 
abuse,  a  strain  in  which  even  Smith  did  not  hesitate  to 
join,  Baldwin  thought  the  regulation  of  the  slave  trade 
had  better  be  left  to  the  states  that  tolerate  it.  He  in- 
sinuated  some  doubts,  though  he  would  not  venture  to 
express  a  decided  opinion,  how  far  the  power  to  regu- 
late commerce  gave  to  Congress  the  right  to  pursue  an 
individual  citizen  in  his  business  between  one  foreign 
nation  and  another.  Tucker  pushed  this  argument  to 
a  much  greater  extent,  denying  the  right  of  Congress 
over  citizens  trading  out  of  their  jurisdiction,  any  further 
than  to  deprive  vessels  so  employed  of  their  American 
character.  But,  in  spite  of  all  the  objections  urged 
against  it,  the  resolution,  as  modified  by  Madison,  was 
adopted. 

On  the  sixth  resolution,  that  relating  to  the  foreign 


POWER  OF  CONGRESS  OVER  SLAVERY.    193 

slave  trade  carried  on  from  ports  of  the  United  States,  CHAPTER 
Scott   made  an    elaborate   speech.     "  This  was   a   sub-  __ 
ject,"  he  remarked, "  which  had  agitated  the  minds  of 
most  civilized  nations  for  a  number  of  years,  and  there- 
fore  what  was   said,   and    more  particularly  what  was 
done  in   Congress  at  this  time,  would,  in  some  degree, 
form  the  political  character  of  America  on  the  subject  of 
slavery. 

"  Most  of  the  arguments  advanced  had  gone  against 
the  emancipation  of  such  as  were  slaves  already.  But 
that  question  was  not  before  the  committee.  The  re- 
port under  consideration  involves  no  such  idea.  It  was 
granted  on  all  hands  that  Congress  have  no  authority 
to  intermeddle  in  that  business.  I  believe  that  the  sev- 
eral states  with  whom  that  authority  really  rests  will, 
from. time  to  time,  make  such  advances  in  the  premises 
as  justice  to  the  master  and  slave,  the  dictates  of  human- 
ity and  sound  policy,  and  the  state  of  society  will  require 
or  admit,  and  here  I  rest  content. 

"  An  advocate  for  slavery  in  its  fullest  latitude,  at 
this  age  of  the  world,  and  on  the  floor  of  the  American 
Congress  too,  seems  to  me  a  phenomenon  in  politics. 
Yet  such  advocates  have  appeared,  and  many  argument- 
ative statements  have  been  urged,  to  which  I  will  only 
answer  by  calling  on  those  who  heard  them  to  believe 
them  if  they  can.  With  me  they  defy,  yea,  mock  all 
belief." 

But  while  conceding  that  slavery  within  the  states 
was  out  of  the  constitutional  reach  of  Congress,  Scott 
was  not  inclined  to  admit  any  limitation  to  the  power 
of  that  body  over  the  importation  of  slaves  from  abroad. 
"  The  clause  relative  to  the  free  migration  or  importation, 
until  1808,  of  such  persons  as  any  of  the  states  might 
see  proper  to  admit,  had  indeed  been  urg«d  as  intended 
IV.— N 


J94  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  to  cover  this  very  case  of  the  slave  trade,  and  the  <  per- 

sons'  referred  to  in  that  clause  were  said  to  be  slaves. 

1790.  He  could  not  think  it  satisfactory  to  be  told  that  there 
was  an  understanding  on  this  subject  between  the  North- 
ern and  Southern  members  of  the  National  Convention. 
He  trusted  there  was  no  trafficking  in  the  Convention. 
When  considering  our  constitutional  powers,  we  must 
judge  of  them  by  the  face  of  the  instrument  under  which 
we  sit,  and  not  by  the  certain  understandings  which  the 
framers  of  that  instrument  may  be  supposed  to  have  had 
with  each  other,  but  which  never  transpired.  At  any 
rate,  the  Constitution  was  not  obligatory  until  ratified 
by  a  certain  number  of  state  Conventions,  which  can  not 
be  supposed  to  have  been  acquainted  with  the  under- 
standing in  the  National  Convention,  but  must  be  taken 
to  have  ratified  the  Constitution  on  its  own  merits,  us 
they  appear  on  the  face  of  the  instrument.  He  had  t)io 
honor  of  a  seat  in  one  of  those  Conventions,  and  gave 
his  assent  to  the  Constitution  on  those  principles.  Me 
did  then,  he  did  now,  and  he  ever  should,  judge  of  ihe 
powers  of  Congress  by  the  words  of  the  Constitution, 
with  as  much  latitude  as  if  it  were  a  thousand  yesrs 
old,  and  every  man  in  the  Convention  that  framed  it  lo  ig 
since  in  his  grave. 

"I  acknowledge,"  he  added,  "that  by  this  clause  vf 
the  Constitution  Congress  is  denied  the  power  of  pre> 
hibiting,  for  a  limited  period,  the  importation  01  migrt, 
tion  of  persons,  but  may  impose  a  tax  or  duty,  and  J 
say,  as  well  on  the  white  as  on  the  black  person,  finl 
some  certain  inadmissible  qualities  may  be  adherent  to 
persons  which,  from  the  necessity  of  things,  must  and 
will,  notwithstanding  this  provision,  justify  the  exclu- 
sion  of  the  persons  themselves,  such  as  a  plague,  or  hos- 
tile designs  against  the  Union  by  armed  immigrants.  In 


POWER  OF  CONGRESS  OVER  SLAVERY. 

such  a  case,  if  the  importation  were  not  prevented,  I  CHAPTER 
should  be  more  inclined  to  impute  it  to  want  of  physical 
than  of  constitutional  power.  In  consistency  with  this  1790. 
mode  of  reasoning,  I  believe  that  if  Congress  should  at 
any  time  be  of  opinion  that  a  state  of  slavery  attached 
to  a  person  is  a  quality  altogether  inadmissible  into 
America,  they  would  not  be  bound  by  the  clause  above 
cited  from  prohibiting  that  hateful  quality.  As  in  the 
first  case  the  plague,  and  in  the  second  the  enmity  and 
arms,  so  in  the  third  the  state  of  slavery  may,  notwith- 
standing any  thing  in  this  clause,  be  declared  by  Con- 
gress qualities,  or  conditions,  or  adherents,  or  what  you 
please  to  call  them,  which,  being  attached  to  any  per- 
son, the  person  himself  can  not  be  admitted. 

"  By  another  clause  of  the  Constitution,  Congress 
have  power  to  regulate  trade.  Under  that  head  not  only 
the  proposition  now  under  consideration,  but  any  other 
or  further  regulation  which  to  Congress  may  seem  ex- 
pedient, is  fully  in  their  power.  Nay,  sir,  if  these 
wretched  Africans  are  to  be  considered  as  property,  as 
some  gentlemen  would  have  it,  and,  consequently,  as 
subjects  of  trade  and  commerce,  they  and  their  masters 
so  far  lose  the  benefit  of  their  personality,  that  Congress 
may  at  pleasure  declare  them  contraband  goods,  and  so 
prohibit  the  trade  altogether. 

"  Again,  sir,  Congress  have  power  to  establish  a  rule 
of  naturalization.  This  rule,  it  is  clear,  depends  on 
the  mere  pleasure  of  Congress.  Whenever  they  please, 
they  may  declare,  by  law,  that  any  and  every  person, 
black  or  white,  who  from  foreign  ports  can  only  get  his 
or  her  foot  on  the  American  shore,  within  the  territory 
of  the  United  States,  shall,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
be  not  only  free  persons,  but  free  citizens.  And  that 
Congress  has  such  power  is  clearly  proved  by  the  very 


196  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTBA  bill  read  this  morning  on  the  subject  of  naturalization, 
'in  which  it  is  provided  that  the  applicant  shall  be  a  "free 
1790.  white  person,"  plainly  implying  that,  but  for  that  restric- 
tion, the  slave  black  man,  as  well  as  the  free  white  man. 
might  avail  himself  of  that  law  by  fulfilling  its  conditions. 

"  Moreover,  Congress  have  power  to  define  and  punish 
piracies  and  felonies  on  the  high  seas.  Under  this  head, 
Congress  may,  when  they  please,  declare  by  law  that  an 
American  going  to  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  there  receiv- 
ing on  board  of  any  vessel  any  person  in  chains  or  fet- 
ters, or  in  any  manner  under  confinement,  or  carrying 
such  person,  whether  sold  as  a  slave  or  not,  to  any  part 
of  the  world,  without  his  own  free  will  and  consent,  to 
be  certified  as  Congress  may  direct,  shall  be  guilty  of 
piracy  and  felony  on  the  high  seas,  and,  on  conviction 
thereof,  shall  suffer  death  without  benefit  of  clergy;  and 
Congress  may,  perhaps,  go  equally  far  with  respect  to 
foreigners  who  land  slaves  within  the  territory  of  the 
United  States,  in  contravention  of  any  regulation  thev 
may  please  to  make. 

"  So  much  as  to  the  powers  of  Congress.  I  desire 
that  the  world  should  know,  I  desire  that  those  people  in 
the  gallery,  about  whom  so  much  has  been  said,  should 
know,  that  there  is  at  least  one  member  on  this  floor  who 
believes  that  Congress  have  ample  powers  to  do  all  they 
have  asked  respecting  the  African  slave  trade.  Nor  do 
I  doubt  that  Congress  will,  whenever  necessity  or  policy 
dictate  the  measure,  exercise  those  powers.  I  believe 
that  the  importation  of  one  cargo  of  slaves  would  go  far 
toward  inducing  such  action ;  but  I  believe,  also,  that  this 
necessity  is  not  likely  to  happen.  The  states,  I  think, 
will  severally  do  what  is  right  in  the  premises. 

"  If  the  question  were,  What  will  Congress  do  ?  not  a 
member  from  the  South  is  more  ready  than  I  to  say, 


POWER  OF  CONGRESS  OVER  SLAVERY. 

Nothing.     I  think  that  as  yet  there  is  no  necessity  for 
acting.      But  the  question  being  as  to  the  powers  of  ^ 
Congress,  those  powers,  if  expressed   at  all,  should  be  1790 
fully  expressed." 

Jackson,  who  rose  in  reply  to  Scott,  after  laboring  to 
establish  the  divine  origin  of  slavery  by  quotations  from 
Moses,  and  its  moral  and  political  rectitude  by  the  exam- 
ple of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  addressed  himself  then  to 
the  constitutional  question.  "  The  gentleman  trusted 
there  was  no  trafficking  in  the  Convention.  What  he 
calls  trafficking  I  believe  was  necessary.  In  order  that 
the  Constitution  might  be  made  agreeable  to  all  parties, 
interests  were  to  be  mutually  given  up.  In  suffering  a 
bare  majority  of  Congress  to  decide  on  laws  relative  to 
navigation,  the  South  admitted  what  was  injurious  to 
them,  in  order  to  obtain  security  for  their  slave  property; 
and  without  it  I  believe  the  Union  would  never  have  been 
completed.  Break  this  tie,  and  you  now  dissolve  it. 
Suppose  Congress  were  to  forbid  the  Eastern  fishery,  or 
to  put  restrictions  upon  it ;  would  the  Eastern  States 
submit  ?  Affect  the  Southern  property,  and  gentlemen 
may  assure  themselves  of  the  same  tendency.  The  gen- 
tleman is  willing  to  let  this  business  rest  till  it  appears 
what  the  states  will  do.  His  alternative  is,  if  you  will 
not  abolish  slavery,  we  will.  He  hoped  the  House  would 
be  cautious  how  they  adopted  this  language,  how  they 
destroyed  that  Constitution  which  had  been  so  happily 
established." 

Smith  of  South  Carolina  wished  to  see  an  end  of  this 
disagreeable  business,  and  had  determined  to  say  nothing 
more  on  the  subject,  because  he  lamented  the  waste  of 
time  already  occasioned  by  it,  and  the  ill  humor  it  had 
produced  among  gentlemen  heretofore  accustomed  to  treat 
other  with  politeness.  But  the  observations  mada 


£98  '  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  by  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  (Scott)  required 
•  some  answer.  He  agreed  that  Congress  had  no  greater 
17-90.  right  to  levy  a  duty  of  ten  dollars  on  slaves  imported 
than  on  freemen,  for  the  Constitution  made  no  difference. 
It  spoke  of  migration  as  well  as  of  importation.  But 
this  remark  he  could  not  reconcile  with  another  made 
by  the  gentleman,  that,  as  Congress  had  power  to  regu- 
late trade,  they  might,  therefore,  regulate  the  trade  in 
slaves ;  for,  if  there  was  nothing  in  the  Constitution  which 
held  out  the  idea  of  slavery,  how  could  these  Africans  be 
viewed  in  a  light  different  from  any  other  class  of  beings  ? 
"  But  the  gentleman  had  insisted  that  Congress  might 
prohibit  the  importation  of  any  species  of  persons  of  an 
inadmissible  quality  ;  as,  for  instance,  persons  affected 
with  a  pestilential  disorder  ;  and,  as  slavery  was  as  bad 
as  the  plague,  they  might  interdict  the  importation  of 
slaves.  The  argument  was  new  and  ingenious,  and,  if 
well  founded,  would  go  much  further  ;  for,  if  Congress 
could  interdict  the  bringing  a  plague  into  the  country, 
they  had  equal  authority  to  drive  a  plague  out  of  it ; 
and  as  the  Quaker  memorialists  had  been  a  great  plague 
to  them,  and  as  sore  a  plague  to  the  Southern  States  as 
any  whatever,  these  Quakers,  under  this  power,  might  be 
exterminated. 

"  The  respectable  name  of  Dr.  Franklin  had  been  men- 
tioned as  giving  countenance  to  these  memorials,  one  of 
which  was  signed  by  him  as  president  of  the  abolition 
society.  It  was  astonishing  to  see  that  gentleman's  name 
to  an  application  which  called  upon  Congress,  in  explicit 
terms,  to  break  a  solemn  compact  to  which  he  had  him- 
self been  a  party.  The  gentleman  from  Massachusetts 
(Gerry)  had  declared  that  it  was  the  opinion  of  the  select 
committee,  of  which  he  was  a  member,  that  the  memorial 
from  the  Pennsylvania  society  asked  Congress  to  violate 


POWER    OF    CONGRESS    OVER    SLAVERY.         199 

the  Constitution.      And  it  was  no  less  astonishing  that  CHAPTEB 
Dr.  Franklin  had  taken   the  lead  in   a  business  which 
looked  so  much  like  a  persecution  of  the  Southern  inhab-  1790 
itants,  especially  when  he  recollected  the  parable  the  doc- 
tor had  written  some  time  ago  with  a  view  to  show  the 
impropriety  of  one  set  of  men  persecuting  others  for  a 
difference  of  opinion." 

Boudinot  "  agreed  to  the  general  doctrines  of  Scott,  but 
could  not  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  clause  in  the  Con- 
stitution relating  to  the  importation  or  migration  of  such 
persons  as  the  states  now  existing  shall  think  proper  to 
admit,  did  not  include  the  case  of  negro  slaves.  Candor 
required  him  to  acknowledge  that  this  was  the  express 
design  of  the  Constitution.  He  had  been  informed  that 
the  tax  or  duty  of  ten  dollars  was  agreed  to  instead  of 
five  per  cent,  ad  valorem,  and  that  it  was  so  expressly 
understood  by  all  parties  in  the  Convention.-  It  was, 
therefore,  the  interest  and  duty  of  Congress  to  impose  the 
tax,  or  it  would  not  be  doing  justice  to  the  states  or 
equalizing  the  duties  throughout  the  Union.  The  gen- 
tlemen in  opposition  were  justifiable  in  supporting  the  in- 
terests of  their  constituents,  but  their  warmth  had  been 
excessive.  Yet  even  that  warmth  was  not  without  ex- 
cuse. It  was  an  arduous  task,  in  this  enlightened  age, 
to  prove  the  legality  of  slavery.  When  gentlemen  at- 
tempt to  justify  this  unnatural  traffic,  or  to  prove  the 
lawfulness  of  slavery,  they  ought  to  advert  to  the  genius 
of  our  government  and  to  the  principles  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. *  If  it  were  possible  for  men  who  exercise  their 
reason  to  believe,'  says  the  Declaration  of  1775,  setting 
forth  the  causes  and  necessity  for  taking  up  arms,  i  that 
the  divine  Author  of  our  existence  intended  a  part  of  the 
human  race  to  hold  an  absolute  power  in  and  an  unbound- 
ed property  over  others,  marked  out  by  his  infinite  good- 


200  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  ness  and  wisdom  as  the  objects  of  a  legal  domination 
'  never  rightfully  resistible,  however  severe  and  oppressive, 
'790.  the  inhabitants  of  these  colonies  might  at  least  require 
from  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  some  evidence  that 
this  dreadful  authority  over  them  had  been  granted  tc 
that  body.'  By  the  Declaration  of  Independence  in 
1776,  Congress  declare  c  these  truths  to  be  self-evident, 
that  all  men  are  created  equal,  that  they  are  endowed  by 
their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights,  and  that 
among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness.' Such  was  the  language  of  America  in  the  day  of 
her  distress ! 

"But  there  was  a  wide  difference  between  justifying 
the  African  slave  trade  and  supporting  a  claim  vested  at 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  and  guaranteed  by  it ; 
nor  would  he  be  understood  as  contending  for  any  right 
in  Congress  to  give  freedom  to  those  who  are  now  held 
as  slaves,  or,  at  the  present  time,  to  prohibit  the  slave 
trade.  It  would  be  a  piece  of  inhumanity  to  turn  these 
unhappy  people  loose,  to  murder  each  other  or  to  perish 
for  want  of  the  necessaries  of  life.  He  never  was  an 
advocate  for  conduct  so  extravagant." 

After  an  elaborate  vindication  of  the  Quakers,  Bou- 
dinot  denied  that  the  petition  signed  by  Franklin  asked 
any  thing  contrary  to  the  Constitution.  The  request 
"was  to  go  to  the  utmost  verge  of  the  Constitution/' 
not  to  go  beyond  it. 

The  ardent  Jackson  was  by  no  means  satisfied  with 
the  distinction  attempted  to  be  set  up  between  the  Afri- 
can slave  trade  and  the  case  of  the  slaves  already  in  the 
country.  "  I  am  for  none  of  these  half-way  consciences ; 
if  I  was  disposed  to  do  any  thing,  I  should  be  for  total 
abolition.  Let  charity  and  humanity  begin  at  home  \ 
let  the  gertlemen  in  the  Northern  States  who  own  slaves 


POWER    OF    CONGRESS    OVER    SLAVERY.        201 

and  advocate  their  cause,  set  the  example  of  emancipa-  CHAPTEB 
tion.     Let  them  prove  their  own  humanity  ;    let  them  . 

pull  the  beam  out  of  their  own  eye  previous  to  discover-  1790. 
ing  the  mote  in  their  neighbor's.  That  is  an  argument 
that  would  speak  for  itself.  Gentlemen  have  talked  of 
our  raising  alarms ;  but  it  is  at  a  reality,  not  at  a  bug- 
bear. The  whole  tenor  of  the  resolutions  has  been  con- 
trary to  Southern  interests ;  and  manumission,  emanci- 
pation, and  abolition  have  been  their  intention.  I  give 
the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  (Scott)  credit ;  I  ad- 
mit his  candor ;  he  has  boldly  spoken  out.  I  wish  the 
same  might  be  done  by  other  members,  who  appear  to 
me  to  conceal  their  real  designs  under  the  specious  pre- 
text of  concern  for  the  interests  of  the  Southern  States." 
Jackson's  reiterated  abuse  of  the  Quakers,  for  which 
he  made  a  sort  of  half  apology,  by  remarking  that  he 
believed  they  cared  very  little  about  it,  called  up  Will- 
iamson, who  had  just  taken  his  seat  from  North  Carolina, 
and  who  had  been  a  member  of  the  Federal  Convention. 
One  of  his  colleagues  was  Sevier,  the  late  rebel  governor 
of  the  transitory  and  now  extinct  State  of  Frankland. 
Williamson  thought  the  time  of  Congress  badly  employed 
in  passing  abstract  resolutions  as  to  what  they  could  or 
could  not  do,  and  still  worse  in  discussing  what  appeared 
to  be  the  general  subject  of  debate,  whether  the  Quakers 
were  the  worst  or  the  best  of  all  religious  societies.  As 
to  their  conduct  in  the  present  case,  he  believed  they 
held  themselves  bound  in  conscience  to  bear  a  testimony 
against  slavery.  He  revered  all  men  who  respect  the 
dictates  of  conscience  at  the  expense  of  time  and  money  : 
such  men  are  seldom  bad  members  of  society.  "  We,  too, 
must  regard  the  dictates  of  conscience  ;  we  are  bound  to 
support  the  Constitution,  and  to  protect  the  property  of 
oui  fellow-citizens ;  and  we  are  expressly  prohibited  by 


202  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  Constitution  from  giving  liberty  to  a  single  slave 
That  business  remains  with  the  individual  states;   it  is 
1790.  not  committed  to  Congress,  who  have  no  right  to  inter- 
meddle with  it."     He  was  therefore  opposed  to  all  the 
resolutions. 

After  some  further  debate,  in  which  the  merits  of  the 
Quakers  continued  to  hold  a  large  place,  the  sixth  reso- 
lution was  agreed  to.  The  seventh,  pledging  Congress 
to  exert  their  full  powers  for  the  restriction  of  the  slave 
trade — and,  as  it  might  also  be  understood,  for  the  dis- 
countenancing of  slavery — was  struck  out.  The  com- 
mittee then  rose,  and  reported  the  resolutions  to  the 
House. 

March  23.  The  next  day,  as  soon  as  the  preliminary  business 
had  been  disposed  of,  it  was  moved  to  take  up  this  re- 
port. Ames,  so  eloquent  formerly  on  the  molasses  duty, 
but  silent  hitherto  throughout  this  debate,  now  expressed 
the  opinion  that  the  subject  might  rest  at  the  stage  it 
had  reached.  He  regretted  the  time  consumed,  and  the 
manner  also  in  which  the  debate  had  been  conducted 
He  reprobated  the  idea  of  a  declaration  of  abstract  prop- 
ositions. Let  the  report  lie  on  the  files  of  the  House, 
where  it  might  be  occasionally  referred  to. 

Ames  was  highly  complimented  by  Jackson,  whc 
wished  that  more  of  the  members  from  the  eastward  had 
acted  in  a  similar  spirit.  Madison  thought  the  sugges- 
tion of  Ames  a  good  one,  with  this  modification,  that  the 
report  of  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  should  be  entered 
on  the  journals  for  the  information  of  the  public,  and  to 
quiet  the  fears  of  the  South,  by  showing  that  Congress 
claimed  no  power  to  prohibit  the  importation  of  slaves 
before  1808,  and  no  power  of  manumission  at  any  time. 
Burke  "  complained  of  this  as  an  uncandid  method  of 
disposing  of  the  business.  He  would  rather  it  should 


PO'VER    OF    CONGRESS    OVER    SLAVERY.         2  0  o 

pass  regularly  through  the  forms  of  the  House.      It  was  CHAPTER 

smuggling  the  affair  to  let  it  rest  here,  as  it  deprived  the 

people  of  the  counsel  of  their  Senate."  Smith  took  the  1790. 
same  ground.  The  precedents  quoted  of  memorials  en- 
tered on  the  journals  were  not  applicable  to  the  present 
question,  which  involved  a  discussion  of  the  powers  of 
Congress.  On  a  question  as  to  those  powers,  the  Sen- 
ate,  composing  one  branch  of  the  Legislature,  should 
certainly  be  consulted.  Both  reports  were  now  to  be 
entered  on  the  journals,  without  any  declaration  to  show 
which  had  been  approved  and  which  rejected.  They 
were  precluded  from  having  the  yeas  and  nays  on  the 
report,  and  yet  it  would  be  called  the  act  of  the  House. 
Madison  contended  that,  as  it  was  impossible  to  shut  the 
door  altogether  upon  this  business,  the  method  proposed 
was  the  most  conciliatory,  and  the  best  adapted  to  the 
present  situation  of  things.  The  motion  finally  prevail- 
ed, by  a  vote  of  twenty-nine  to  twenty-five,  and  the  re- 
port was  entered  on  the  journal  as  follows : 

"  That  the  migration  or  importation  of  such  persons  as 
any  of  the  states  now  existing  shall  think  proper  to  admit 
can  not  be  prohibited  by  Congress  prior  to  the  year  1808. 

"  That  Congress  have  no  authority  to  interfere  in  the 
emancipation  of  slaves,  or  in  the  treatment  of  them,  in 
any  of  the  states,  it  remaining  with  the  several  states 
alone  to  provide  any  regulations  therein  which  humanity 
and  true  policy  require. 

"  That  Congress  have  authority  to  restrain  the  citi- 
zens of  the  United  States  from  carrying  on  the  African 
slave  trade  for  the  purpose  of  supplying  foreigners  with 
slaves,  and  of  providing  by  proper  regulations  for  the  hu- 
mane treatment,  during  their  passage,  of  slaves  imported 
by  the  said  citizens  into  the  said  states  admitting  such 
importation. 


204  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER       "  That  Congress  have  also  authority  to  prohibit  lor- 
-  eigners  from  fitting  out  vessels  in  any  port  of  the  United 
1790.  States  for  transporting  persons  from  Africa  to  any  for- 
eign  port." 

Such  was  the  termination  of  this  remarkable  and  very 
characteristic  debate,  the  first  of  a  series  recurring  from 
time  to  time  down  to  the  present  day,  and  constituting, 
of  late  years,  one  of  the  chief  staples  of  congressional 
discussion.  The  report  of  the  select  committee  had  been 
evidently  intended  to  avoid  any  occasion  for  excitement 
or  controversy.  Though  a  certain  power  over  the  Af- 
rican slave  trade  had  been  claimed  for  Congress,  the 
right  of  interfering  with  slavery  as  it  existed  in  the 
states,  or  even  of  prohibiting  the  further  importation  of 
slaves  prior  to  1808,  was  expressly  renounced.  The 
fury,  therefore,  with  which  this  report  had  been  assailed, 
and  the  long  and  violent  debate  it  had  occasioned,  were 
wholly  unexpected.  This  attack,  it  is  to  be  observed, 
came  almost  entirely  from  South  Carolina  and  Georgia. 
"  The  South"  spoken  of  in  the  debate  must  be  under- 
stood as  limited  to  those  two  states,  with  the  addition, 
perhaps,  of  North  Carolina,  which  still  admitted  the  im- 
portation of  slaves,  burdened,  however,  with  a  consider- 
able impost,  upon  the  express  ground,  as  stated  in  the 
act,  that  this  traffic  was  of  "  evil  consequence  and  high- 
ly impolitic."  A  majority  of  the  representatives  from 
Maryland  and  Virginia  evidently  leaned  to  anti-slavery 
views — a  sentiment  since  greatly  modified  in  those  states 
by  the  immense  domestic  slave  trade  which  has  sprung 
up  within  the  last  thirty  years. 

The  extreme  violence  of  the  Southern  members,  whose 
policy  it  was — a  policy  ever  since  adhered  to — to  pre- 
vent Congress  from  taking  any  action  of  any  sort  hostile 
to  slavery,  did  not  fail  of  a  certain  effect.  All  the  friends 


TERRITORY  SOUTH  OF  THE  OHIO.      205 

of  the  funding  system  were  highly  alarmed  at  this  new  CHAPTER 
influx  of  bitter  sectional  feeling  while  that  great  ques-          ' 
tion  still  remained  unsettled.      Though  the  majority  in  1790. 
favor  of  the  doctrines  of  the  select  committee,  as  to  the 
power  of  Congress  over  the  slave  trade,  was  very  deci- 
sive, yet  they  shrank  from  any  attempt  to  give  to  that 
doctrine  a  practical  effect.      Indeed,  the  final  disposition 
made  of  the  report  professed  to  have  for  its  object  not  so 
much  the  vindication  of  the  power  of  Congress  as  the 
appeasing  the  alarms  of  the  South.     The  Quakers,  how- 
ever, and  other  opponents  of  the  slave  trade,  acting,  as 
they  did,  under  the  impulse  of  a  strong  moral  sentiment, 
were  not 'to  be  silenced  or  quieted  by  those  prudential 
considerations  which  operated  with  such  force  on  Ames 
and  others. 

Some  further  discussion  of  this  question  of  slavery 
took  place  a  few  days  after,  on  the  consideration  of  a  March  xe 
bill  for  accepting  the  North  Carolina  cession  and  erect- 
ing a  government  for  the  ceded  territory.  One  of  the 
conditions  of  the  cession  was  that  Congress  should  make 
no  regulation  tending  to  the  emancipation  of  slaves.  It 
would  be  curious  to  know  what  was  said  upon  that  sub- 
ject, but  of  that  debate  no  report  exists.  The  act,  as 
passed,  erected  the  ceded  district  into  the  TERRITORY 
SOUTH  OF  THE  OHIO,  to  stand  upon  the  same  footing,  in 
every  respect,  except  the  exclusion  of  slavery,  with  the 
Territory  northwest  of  the  Ohio.  Of  this  new  territo- 
ry, coincident  with  the  present  State  of  Tennessee,  and 
of  which  William  Blount  was  presently  appointed  gov- 
ernor, the  greater  part,  at  this  time,  was  in  possession 
of  the  Indians.  To  only  two  detached  portions  had  the 
Indian  title  been  extinguished  ;  one  of  four  or  five  thou- 
sand square  miles  (the  late  State  of  Frankland),  the 
northeast  corner  of  the  present  State  of  Tennessee  ;  the 


206  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  other  an  oblong  tract  of  some  two  thousand  square  miles 
around  the  town  of  Nashville,  on  both  sides  of  the  Cum- 

JL790.  berland  River. 

March  29.  The  funding  resolutions  coming  up  in  the  House,  the 
first  and  second  clauses,  declaring  that  adequate  provi- 
sion ought  to  be  made  for  the  domestic  as  well  as  the 
foreign  debt,  passed  without  a  division.  The  third 
clause,  placing  the  over-due  interest  on  the  same  level 
with  the  principal,  was  also  agreed  to  by  a  considerable 
majority.  When  the  fourth  clause  was  reached — that 
relating  to  the  assumption  of  the  state  debts — a  recom- 
mitment being  moved,  it  was  carried  by  a  majority  of 
two,  the  position  of  parties  on  that  question  having  been 
reversed  by  the  arrival  of  the  North  Carolina  delegation. 
The  remaining  clauses  were  also  recommitted,  and  the 
debate  was  renewed  with  as  much  pertinacity  as  ever. 
Bland,  the  only  Virginian  who  supported  the  assump- 
tion— and  he  died  before  the  matter  was  finally  settled 
— in  giving  his  reasons  for  differing  from  his  colleagues, 
made  some  interesting  statements.  The  debt  of  Vir- 
ginia amounted  to  $3,300,000,  and  the  interest  had 
hitherto  been  paid  by  the  import  duties,  certificates  of 
interest  being  receivable  in  payment.  But  that  was 
now  at  an  end,  and  the  whole  charge,  such  being  the 
policy  now  pursued  by  the  Virginia  Legislature  in  mat- 
ters of  taxation,  would  fall  upon  the  land  and  negroes. 
Since  the  commencement  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  enor- 
mous emigrations  had  taken  place  from  Virginia,  and 
were  still  going  on.  Nine  tenths  of  the  people  of  Ken- 
tucky had  emigrated  from  that  state,  and  more  than 
half  of  Georgia  had  been  peopled  in  the  same  way.  The 
Territory  south  of  the  Ohio,  the  cession  of  which  had  just 
been  accepted,  had  been  chiefly  peopled  from  Virginia. 
Large  numbers  had  emigrated  to  other  states.  Upon 


ASSUMPTION  OF  THE  STATE  DEBTS.     £07 

those  left  behind  the  payment  of  the  whole  debt  would  CHAPTER 
fall,  though  lands,  from  the  great  quantity  thrown  into 
the  market  by  emigrants,  had  declined  more  than  sixty  1790. 
per.  cent,  in  value.  The  tide-water  counties,  in  which 
the  debt  was  principally  held,  had  suffered  extremely 
during  the  war  from  the  ravages  of  the  enemy,  having 
lost  not  less  than  seven  thousand  negroes.  To  these 
losses  were  to  be  added  claims  for  British  debts  anterior 
to  the  war.  Yet  upon  these  same  counties  would  the 
burden  of  taxation  chiefly  fall ;  for,  though  the  weight 
of  wealth  lay  toward  the  seaboard,  the  western  counties 
preponderated  in  political  power. 

In  favor  of  assumption,  Burke  dwelt  at  length  on  the 
sufferings,  losses,  and  merits  of  South  Carolina.  The 
arguments  already  urged  in  its  favor  were  recapitulated 
by  Lawrence,  Goodhue,  Smith  of  South  Carolina,  Hart- 
ley, Gerry,  Wadsworth,  Vining,  Sherman,  Clymer,  and 
Fitzsimmons.  The  other  side  was  supported  by  Jack- 
son, Williamson,  Page,  White,  and  Moore,  of  whom  the 
last  assigned  as  a  principal  reason  why  Virginia  was  op- 
posed to  the  assumption,  that  the  certificates  of  the  state 
debt  had  passed  at  a  great  discount  into  the  hands  of  the 
merchants,  and  that,  uncLr  the  circumstances,  the  plant- 
ers thought  it  unreasonable  to  be  taxed  to  pay  the  full 
amount.  Sherman  summed  up  for  the  assumptionists, 
to  whom  White  replied,  not  without  allusions  to  what 
he  understood  as  threats  thrown  out  during  the  debate, 
that  if  the  state  debts  were  not  assumed,  the  Eastern 
States  would  secede  from  the  Union.  The  question  be- 
ing taken,  the  assumption  was  lost,  twenty -nine  to  April  12 
thirty-one,  a  decision  which  drew  out  from  Sedgwick 
very  energetic  remonstrances  as  to  the  political  dangers 
thereby  incurred — remonstrances  to  which  Jackson  re- 
plied in  a  tone  just  as  lofty.  Gerry  moved  to  refer  the 


208  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  matter  to  a  committee  of  one  from  each  state,  but  this 

.'       motion  finally  failed.      Instead  of  it,  a  bill  was  ordered  to 

1790.  be  brought  in,  founded  on  Madison's  resolution  already 

April  20.  mentioned,  for  expediting  and  completing  the  settlement 

between  the  Union  and  the  states. 

Pending  the  discussion  of  the  remaining  resolutions  as 
to  the  terms  on  which  the  debt  should  be  funded,  the 
question  of  the  state  debts  was  repeatedly  reintroduced. 
Sherman  suggested  the  assumption  of  certain  specific 
sums  for  each  state,  amounting  in  the  whole  to  nineteen 
millions  three  hundred  thousand  dollars,  substantially  the 
same  plan  adopted  in  the  end.  This  proposition,  and, 
indeed,  the  whole  policy  of  assumption,  was  opposed  in 
an  elaborate  speech  by  Madison,  who  had  hitherto  re- 
frained from  any  very  active  part  on  this  question.  Pro- 
voked at  the  pretensions  set  up  by  Madison  and  others 
of  extraordinary  efforts  on  the  part  of  Virginia  during  the 
war,  Ames  moved  for  a  call  upon  the  War  Department 
for  the  number  of  men  furnished  by  each  state  to  the 
Revolutionary  armies,  a  motion  vehemently  opposed,  but 
carried  by  a  small  majority. 

After  an  interval  employed  in  other  business,  the 
May  24.  Funding  Bill  being  under  consideration  in  Committee  of 
the  Whole,  Gerry  proposed  an  amendment,  very  similar 
to  Sherman's,  for  the  assumption  of  certain  specified  por- 
tions of  the  state  debts.  The  advocates  of  assumption 
took  this  occasion  to  reply  to  the  arguments  urged  by 
Madison  at  the  end  of  the  former  debate,  and  also  to 
show,  from  the  answer  to  Ames's  call  for  -information, 
that  the  alleged  superiority  of  revolutionary  exertions  on 
the  part  of  Virginia  was  by  no  means  a  fact.  It  ap- 
peared, indeed,  that  Massachusetts  had  furnished  more 
men  to  the  Continental  army  than  all  the  states  together 
from  Delaware  southward.  Any  direct  question  on  Ger 


ACCESSION    OF    RHODE    ISLAND.  209 

ry's  motion  was  avoided  by  the  rising  of  the  committee  ;  CHAPTER 
and  the  bill  being  reported  to  the  House  with  an  amend-          ' 
ment  for  funding  the  outstanding  Continental  money  at  1790. 
the  rate  of  seventy-five  for  one,  was  passed  and  sent  to  June  a. 
the  Senate. 

The  president  had  communicated,  the  day  before,  in  a 
message  to  both  houses,  the  accession  of  the  State  of 
Rhode  Island  to  the  new  federal  system.  By  the  cast- 
ing vote  of  Governor  Collins  in  the  Board  of  Assistants, 
a  bill  calling  a  state  convention,  to  take  into  considera- 
tion the  Federal  Constitution,  had  passed  the  Rhode 
Island  Assembly  early  in  the  year.  Along  with  notice  Jan.  81. 
of  this  act,  an  urgent  request  had  been  sent  to  Congress 
for  a  further  suspension,  as  to  Rhode  Island  shipping,  of 
the  extra  duties  on  foreign  vessels.  When  the  Conven- 
tion met  at  the  time  appointed,  the  anti-Federal  mem- 
bers found  themselves  a  majority ;  but  not  daring  to 
venture  on  a  positive  rejection  of  the  Constitution,  they 
procrastinated  matters  by  voting  an  adjournment.  The 
annual  election  occurring  in  the  interval,  Collins  was 
dropped  by  the  anti-Federalists,  and  Arthur  Fenner  cho- 
sen governor  in  his  place.  But  the  ruling  majority  felt 
very  doubtful  and  uneasy.  The  secession  of  the  two 
commercial  towns  of  Providence  and  Newport,  indeed 
the  partition  of  the  whole  state  between  Massachusetts 
and  Connecticut,  was  openly  talked  of,  as  well  in  Rhode 
Island  itself  as  in  the  neighboring  states.  As  a  further 
stimulus,  the  federal  Senate  passed  a  bill,  and  sent  it  May  i& 
down  to  the  House,  prohibiting  commercial  intercourse 
with  the  recusant  state,  and  authorizing  a  demand  upon 
her  for  her  quota  toward  the  Continental  debt.  On  the 
reassembling  of  the  Rhode  Island  Convention,  another  at- 
tempt at  procrastination  was  made  by  moving  a  further 
adjournment.  This,  however,  failed;  and  the  Consti. 
IV.— O 


210  HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  tution  was  at  length  ratified  by  a  majority  of  two  votes, 
'       not,  however,  without  previously  setting  forth,   besides 

1790.  twenty-one  proposed  amendments  to  the  body  of  the  in- 
strument, a  Bill  of  Rights,  in  eighteen  articles,  declared, 
like  the  similar  bill  set  forth  by  the  New  York  ratifying 
Convention,  consistent  with  the  Constitution,  and  inca- 
pable of  being  abridged  or  violated.  Thus  were  all  the 
states  of  the  original  confederacy  again  reunited,  by  their 
own  free  consent,  under  the  Federal  Constitution.  The 
Rhode  Island  members  presently  took  their  seats  in  Con- 
gress ;  immediately  after  the  adjournment,  the  president 
paid  a  visit  to  that  state,  where  he  was  welcomed  with 
no  less  enthusiasm  than  ho  had  been  in  other  parts  of 
New  England. 

Though  defeated  in  the  House,  the  friends  of  the  as- 
sumption of  the  state  debts  did  not  despair ;  and,  indeed, 
means  were  soon  found  to  connect  this  question  with  an- 
other, in  which  local  interests  and  jealousies  were  not 
less  involved — that  of  a  permanent  seat  for  the  federal 
government.  By  a  combination  at  the  last  session  be- 
tween the  members  from  the  Eastern  and  Middle  States, 
a  bill,  as  we  have  seen,  had  very  nearly  passed,  though 
finally  defeated  on  a  trifling  matter  of  difference  between 
the  two  houses,  for  fixing  the  permanent  seat  of  gov- 
ernment on  the  Delaware  near  Philadelphia,  Congress  to 
continue  to  sit  at  New  York  till  the  necessary  buildings 
could  be  erected.  At  the  present  session  new  combina- 
tions had  been  formed.  The  Pennsylvanians  seemed 
unwilling  to  risk  the  temporary  residence  at  New  York, 
and  by  their  votes,  and  those  of  the  Southern  members, 

May  3i.  a  resolution  had  been  carried  in  the  House  for  holding 
the  next  session  of  Congress  at  Philadelphia.  The  Sen- 

Jone  8.  ate  having  rejected  this  resolution,  another  was  sent  to 
them  for  holding  the  next  session  at  Baltimore ;  but  thejf 


SEAT  OF  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT.   211 

were  not  disposed  to  sanction  a  removal  from  New  York,  CHAPTER 
unless  the  whole  question  could  be  settled  at  the  same         ' 
time.     A  bill  had  been  introduced  for  that  purpose,  but 
any  agreement  as  to  the  precise  spot  was  found  very 
difficult. 

The  states  most  interested  in  having  the  federal  capi- 
tal on  the  Potomac  were  Virginia  and  Maryland,  and,  as 
a  very  rapid  growth  seems  to  have  been  generally  antici- 
pated for  the  federal  city,  this  interest  was  particularly 
strong  in  that  part  of  these  two  states  immediately  bor- 
dering on  the  river.  It  occurred  to  Robert  Morris  and 
others,  strong  advocates  for  the  assumption,  that,  if  grati- 
fied as  to  the  seat  of  the  federal  capital,  some  of  the  Vir- 
ginia and  Maryland  members  might  be  willing  to  yield 
the  other  point,  and  a  change  of  two  or  three  votes  would 
be  sufficient  to  change  the  majority  in  the  House.  Jef- 
ferson complains  in  his  Ana  that,  having  but  lately  ar- 
rived at  New  York — he  had,  in  fact,  arrived  and  entered 
upon  the  duties  of  his  office  in  the  midst  of  the  slavery 
debate — he  was  "  most  ignorantly  and  innocently  made 
to  hold  the  candle"  to  this  intrigue,  "  being  duped  into 
it,"  as  he  alleges,  "  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
and  made  a  tool  of  for  forwarding  his  schemes,  not  then 
sufficiently  understood."  Hamilton,  it  seems,  appealed 
to  Jefferson  for  his  aid  and  co-operation  as  a  member 
of  the  cabinet  in  calming  an  excitement,  and  bringing 
about  the  settlement  of  a  question  which  seemed  to 
threaten  the  very  existence  of  the  federal  government. 
Jefferson  proposed  to  Hamilton  to  dine  with  him  the  next 
day,  on  which  occasion  he  would  invite  another  friend  or 
two,  to  see  whether  it  "  were  not  possible,  by  some  mu- 
tual sacrifices  of  opinion,  to  form  a  compromise  to  save 
the  Union."  At  this  dinner-party  the  subject  was  dis- 
cussed. Jefferson,  as  he  assures  us,  taking  "  no  part  but 


212      HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  an  exhortatory  one  ;"  and  finally  it  was  agreed  that,  foi 
..     x'       the  sake  of  the  Union,  White  and  Lee,  two  of  the  Vir- 
1790.  ginia  members,  should  change  their  votes  on  the  ques- 
tion of  assumption  ;   but  by  way  of  anodyne  to  the  ex- 
citement which  this  change  might  produce,  the  seat  of 
the  federal  government,  after  remaining  for  the  next  ten 
years  at  Philadelphia,  was  to  be  permanently  fixed  on  the 
Potomac.      From  their  influence  with  the  Eastern  and 
Northern  members,  Hamilton  and  Morris  undertook  tc 
carry  out  that  part  of  the  bargain. 

The  bill  in  relation  to  the  seat  of  government  having, 
in  accordance,  it  would  seem,  with  this  arrangement, 
been  made  to  correspond  to  the  agreement  above  recited, 
was  passed  by  the  Senate,  and  sent  to  the  House.  But, 
as  the  secret  of  the  bargain  of  which  it  formed  a  part  had 
been  communicated  to  only  a  few  of  the  Northern  mem- 
bers, just  sufficient  to  secure  its  passage,  it  there  encoun- 
tered a  very  violent  opposition.  The  yeas  and  nays  were 
called  upon  it  no  less  than  thirteen  times,  and  it  finally 
July  10  passed  only  by  the  close  vote  of  thirty-two  to  twenty- 
nine. 

By  this  act  the  permanent  seat  of  the  federal  gov- 
ernment was  established  on  the  Potomac,  the  particular 
spot,  within  certain  limits,  being  left  to  the  discretion 
of  the  president,  who  was  to  appoint  commissioners  tc 
fix  the  location,  and  to  erect  suitable  public  buildings  for 
the  accommodation  of  Congress,  the  president,  and  the 
several  departments.  In  their  eagerness  to  fix  the  seat 
of  government  in  their  own  neighborhood,  Maryland  and 
Virginia,  as  well  as  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey,  had 
held  out  very  liberal  offers  ;  and  it  was  one  of  the  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  the  present  act,  that  it  provided  for  es- 
tablishing a  capital  and  erecting  all  the  necessary  public 
buildings  without  any  cost  to  the  nation — an  idea  kept 


ASSUMPTION  OF  THE  STATE  DEBTS.     213 

ap  for  several  years,  but  which  proved  in  the  end  to  be  CHAPTER 
a  very  mistaken  one.      Instead  of  an   appropriation  to  _ 

defray  the  expenses  of  the  purchase  of  land  and  of  erect-  1790. 
ing  the  necessary  buildings,  the  president  was  authorized 
and  requested  to  accept  grants  of  money  for  that  pur- 
pose. Congress  and  the  government  were  to  remove  to 
this  new  city  in  December,  1800.  Meanwhile,  com- 
mencing with  the  ensuing  December,  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment was  to  be  at  Philadelphia. 

This  side  of  the  bargain  thus  provided  for,  the  Senate, 
among  numerous  other  amendments  to  the  Funding  Bill, 
inserted  a  provision,  founded  on  Sherman's  suggestion  in  July  16 
the  House,  assuming  certain  specified  amounts  in  the 
certificates  of  the  debts  of  the  different  states.  Not  only 
was  this  specification  more  satisfactory  to  many  than  a 
general  assumption  of  the  whole  mass  of  the  state  debts, 
but  it  admitted  of  modifications  as  to  particular  states, 
by  which  a  number  of  wavering  votes  might  be  fixed, 
and  popular  opinion  be  also  conciliated.  The  bill,  thus 
amended,  passed  the  Senate,  fourteen  to  twelve  :  Mas-  July  2* 
sachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and 
South  Carolina,  unanimous  for  it ;  New  Hampshire, 
Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  and  Maryland,  divided  ;  Rhode 
Island,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  unani- 
mous against  it. 

By  the  time  the  bill  came  back  to  the  House  with 
this  new  provision  in  it,  the  subject  had  been  pretty  well 
exhausted.  The  nature  of  the  compromise  entered  into, 
and  that  votes  enough  were  secured  in  the  House  to  in- 
sure the  passage  of  the  bill,  seem  now  to  have  been  gen- 
erally understood.  But  it  was  not  suffered  to  pass  with- 
out a.  warm  debate.  Jackson  was  the  chief  speaker  for 
the  anti-assumptionists ;  the  other  side  was  maintained 
by  Smith  of  South  Carolina,  Gerry,  and  Sherman 


214  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER       The  assumption  clause  was  sustained  by  a  vote  of 

thirty-four  to  twenty-eight ;  but  several  points  of  differ- 

1790.  ence  between  the  two  houses,  as  to  the  terms  on  which 
Tuly  24.  foQ  fafo  should  be  funded,  delayed  the  final  passage  of 
the  bill ;  nor  were  these  questions  arranged  without  a 
committee  of  conference.  They  related  chiefly  to  the 
interest  to  be  allowed  on  such  part  of  the  new  debt  a&, 
might  be  subscribed  in  the  interest  of  the  old  one ;  to 
the  amount  of  the  deferred  stock  ;  the  period  at  which 
interest  upon  it  was  to  commence  ;  and  the  rights  of  the 
United  States  as  to  redemption  ;  upon  all  which  points 
the  House  was  inclined  to  go  beyoad  the  Senate  in  lib- 
erality to  the  public  creditors. 

Aug.  4.  The  act,  as  finally  passed,  authorized  the  president  to 
borrow  twelve  millions  of  dollars,  if  so  much  were  found 
necessary,  for  discharging  the  arrears  of  interest  and  the 
over-due  installments  of  the  foreign  debt,  and  for  paying 
off  the  whole  of  that  debt,  could  it  be  effected  on  advan- 
tageous terms ;  the  money  thus  borrowed  to  be  reim- 
bursable within  fifteen  years.  A  new  loan  was  also  to 
be  opened,  payable  in  certificates  of  the  domestic  debt 
at  their  par  value,  and  in  Continental  bills  of  credit,  at 
the  rate  of  one  hundred  for  one.  For  subscriptions  in 
the  interest  of  the  domestic  debt,  certificates  were  to  is- 
sue to  the  full  amount,  redeemable  at  the  pleasure  of  the 
government,  and  bearing  interest  at  the  rate  of  three  per 
cent.,  the  interest  to  be  paid  quarterly,  and  to  commence 
with  the  first  day  of  January,  1791 ;  all  interest  becom- 
ing due  on  Continental  certificates  up  to  that  time  to  bo 
funded  as  above.  Subscriptions  in  the  principal  of  the 
domestic  debt  were  to  bear  interest  at  six  per  cent. ;  but 
upon  one  third  of  the  amount,  known  as  deferred  stock, 
the  interest  was  not  to  commence  till  1800.  As  a  com- 
pensation to  the  holders,  this  six  per  cent,  stock  was  not 


FUNDING  SYSTEM  AS  ADOPTED.       215 

to  be  redeemable  at  a  faster  rate  than  eight  dollars  upon  CHAPTER 

the  hundred  annually,  including  the  annual  interest.     It 

was  left  to  the  option  of  the  Continental  creditors  to  sub-  1790 
scribe  or  not  to  this  new  loan.  If  they  did  not  subscribe, 
they  would  still  be  entitled,  for  the  year  1791,  to  the 
same  amount  of  interest  payable  to  subscribers.  But 
there  was  this  argument  in  favor  of  subscription — the 
act  made  a  permanent  provision  for  the  interest  of  the 
new  loan,  whereas  the  holders  of  certificates  would  be 
dependent  on  annual  votes. 

Besides  these  provisions  for  the  Continental  debt,  the 
act  authorized  an  additional  loan,  payable  in  certificates 
of  the  state  debts,  to  the  amount  of  $21,500,000,  and 
distributed  among  the  states  as  follows:  Massachu- 
setts and  South  Carolina,  $4,000,000  each;  Virginia, 
$37500,000;  North  Carolina,  $2,400,000;  Pennsyl- 
vania, $2,200,000;  Connecticut,  $  1,600,000  ;  New 
York,  $1,200,000 ;  New  Jersey  and  Mary  land,  $800,000 
each ;  New  Hampshire  and  Georgia,  $300,000  each ; 
Rhode  Island  and  Delaware,  $200,000  each ;  but  no 
certificates  were  to  be  received  except  such  as  had  been 
issued  for  services  or  supplies  during  the  late  war.  In 
case  the  subscriptions  for  any  state  exceeded  the  amount 
allowed,  there  was  to  be  a  pro  rata  distribution  among 
the  subscribers.  If  the  subscriptions  fell  short — and  the 
allowance,  in  several  cases,  was  known  to  exceed  the 
whole  amount  of  the  state  debt — the  state  itself  was  to 
receive  interest  on  the  balance  until  the  Revolutionary 
accounts  between  the  states  and  the  Union  were  finally 
settled ;  and  in  case  a  balance  were  found  due  from  the 
Union,  till  that  balance  were  paid  or  secured.  As  to 
interest  and  payment,  this  loan  differed  somewhat  from 
that  for  the  Continental  debt.  The  over-due  interest,  to 
be  reckoned  to  the  end  of  the  year  1791,  was  assumed 


216  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  to  constitute  one  third  of  the  whole  subscription,  so  thai 

one  third  of  the  entire  amount  was  to  be  a  three  per 

1790.  cent,  stock.  One  third  of  the  remainder  was  to  be  de- 
ferred stock,  bearing  an  interest  at  six  per  cent.,  to  com- 
mence after  1800  ;  the  balance  was  to  bear  an  interest 
of  six  per  cent.,  to  commence  at  the  beginning  of  the 
year  1792.  For  superintending  these  loans,  and  for  the 
general  management  of  the  public  debt,-  the  old  Conti- 
nental system  was  continued  of  a  loan-office  commis- 
sioner in  each  state,  with  salaries  varying  from  $600  to 
$1500  per  annum. 

For  payment  of  the  interest  and  principal  on  the  pub- 
lic debt — the  foreign  debt  having  the  preference,  and 
then  the  Continental  loan — a  pledge  was  made  of  the 
income  of  the  existing  tonnage  and  import  duties,  after 
an  annual  deduction  of  $600,000  for  current  expenses. 
This  pledge  repealed  the  limitation  inserted  into  the  tar- 
iff act  of  the  last  session,  and  included,  also,  certain  ad- 
ditional duties  specified  below.  The  faith  of  the  United 
States  was  further  pledged  to  make  up  all  deficiencies 
of  interest.  The  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  Western  lands 
then  belonging  to,  or  which  might  belong  to,  the  United 
States,  were  specialty  and  exclusively  appropriated  toward 
the  discharge  of  the  principal ;  but  several  years  elapsed 
before  any  income  was  received  from  that  source. 

To  furnish  additional  means  toward  fulfilling  the  ob- 
ligations thus  assumed,  the  tariff  of  the  last  session  was 
revised,  and  additional  duties  imposed.  By  the  revised 
act,  wines  were  to  pay  from  twenty  to  thirty-five  cents 
per  gallon  ;  distilled  spirits,  from  twelve  to  twenty-five 
cents  per  gallon,  according  to  the  proof;  molasses,  three 
cents ;  teas,  from  ten  to  thirty  cents  per  pound,  with  a 
corresponding  increase  on  importations  from  Europe  or 
in  foreign  vessels ;  coffee,  four  cents  :  sugars,  one  and  a 


REVISED    TARIFF.  217 

half  to  five  cents;  pepper,  six  cents;  pimento,  four  cents  ,  CHAPTEB 
snuff,  ten  cents  ;  indigo,  twenty-five  cents  ;  unwrought  ' 
steel,  seventy-five  cents  the  hundred  weight;  cables  and  1790 
tarred  cordage,  one  dollar  ;  untarred  cordage  and  yarn, 
one  dollar  and  fifty  cents ;  twine  and  pack-thread,  three 
dollars  ;  salt,  twelve  cents  per  bushel ;  coal,  three  cents  ; 
carriages  of  all  sorts,  fifteen  per  cent,  ad  valorem  ;  glass 
and  china-ware,  twelve  and  a  half  per  cent,  ad  valorem  ; 
marble,  slate,  brick,  tiles,  and  all  ntensils  of  marble  and 
slate,  paper  of  all  sorts,  pictures,  prints,  clocks,  watches, 
spices  not  before  enumerated,  fruits,  preserves,  pickles, 
oil,  and  ground  mustard,  ten  per  cent,  ad  valorem  ;  me- 
dicinal drugs,  except  dye-stuffs,  carpets,  velvets,  satins, 
and  other  silk  goods,  cambrics,  muslins,  lawns,  laces, 
gauzes,  chintzes,  colored  calicoes,  and  nankeens,  seven 
and  a  half  per  cent,  ad  valorem.  On  other  articles  the 
duties  remained'  as  by  the  former  tariff,  with  exception 
of  the  following,-  added  to  the  free  list :  bullion,  plaster 
of  Paris,  the  sea-stores  of  ships,  the  clothes,  books,  tools, 
and  furniture  of  immigrants,  philosophical  apparatus  im- 
ported for  seminaries  of  learning,  goods  designed  to  be 
re-exported  in  the  same  vessel,  and  all  goods  of  the  growth 
or  production  of  the  United  States.  The  discount  of  ten 
per  cent,  on  the  duties  of  goods  imported  in  American 
vessels  was  discontinued,  being  replaced  by  an  additional 
ten  per  cent,  when  the  importation  was  in  foreign  vessels. 
The  success  which  had  attended  the  collection  of  the 
duties  imposed  at  the  former  session  had  greatly  in- 
creased the  confidence  of  Congress  in  this  source  of  rev- 
enue. The  Senate,  which,  through  fear  of  smuggling, 
had,  at  the  first  session,  cut  down  the  duties  imposed 
by  the  House,  now  led  off  in  the  other  direction.  The 
bill,  as  it  passed  the  House,  proposed  only  a  general  in- 
crease of  one  third  in  the  then  existing  duties,  with  a 


218  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  special  increase  on  some  particular  articles;  but  in  the 
'  Senate  this  bill  was  completely  remodeled,  the  old  act 
1790  being  repealed,  and  a  new  one  substituted,  including  the 
increased  duties  above  stated.  Gerry,  Sedgwick,  and 
Ames  zealously  opposed  this  accumulation  of  taxes  on 
commerce  alone,  and  renewed  the  cry  of  the  danger  of 
smuggling.  Sherman  supported  the  amendments  of  the 
Senate.  "As  the  House  was  opposed  to  an  excise,  hav- 
ing already  thrown  out  one  bill  because  it  contained  a 
provision  of  that  sort,  and  still  more  so  to  direct  taxes, 
an  increase  of  the  tariff  was  absolutely  necessary.  The 
alleged  danger  of  smuggling  was  an  insulting  imputation 
on  the  American  mercantile  character,  and  gentlemen 
ought  to  take  care  lest,  in  throwing  out  suggestions  of 
the  probability  of  smuggling,  they  became  thereby  en- 
couragers  of  it."  As  a  safeguard,  however,  against  this 
danger,  the  Collection  Act  was  revised,  and  new  and 
more  stringent  provisions  were  added.  The  new  tariff, 
it  was  supposed,  would  furnish  an.  annual  income  suffi- 
cient, besides  discharging  the  current  expenses,  to  meet 
the  interest  on  the  original  federal  debt.  As  interest  on 
the  assumed  debt  would  not  begin  to  be  payable  till  1792, 
provision  for  that  was  deferred  till  the  next  session. 

For  the  final  settlement  of  accounts  between  the  states 
and  the  Union,  the  federal  ratio,  as  it  might  be  determ- 
ined under  an  act  for  a  census  already  passed,  was  adopt- 
ed as  the  rule  for  the  apportionment  of  quotas  to  the 
several  states ;  and  for  bringing  the  settlement  to  an 
immediate  conclusion,  a  new  board  of  three  commission- 
ers was  constituted,  with  full  power  to  liquidate  and  al- 
low all  unsettled  claims  on  general  principles  of  equity, 
although  such  claims  might  not  be  sanctioned  by  resolves 
of  the  Continental  Congress,  or  supported  by  regular 
vouchers.  It  was  further  provided  (and  this  was  the 


SINKING    FUND.  219 

important  matter)  that  such  states  as  might  be  found,  CHAPTER 

on  this  settlement,  to  be  in  advance  to  the  Union,  should ! 

be  entitled  to  have  the  balances  due  them  funded  on  the  1790. 
same  terms  with  the  assumed  debt,  except  that  these 
balances  should  not  be  transferable. 

As,  by  the  terms  of  the  Funding  Act,  the  interest  on 
the  domestic  debt  for  the  current  year  was  to  be  con- 
verted into  principal,  a  considerable  unappropriated  sum 
of  money  would  accumulate  in  the  treasury.  Prudence 
would  have  suggested  that  a  balance  of  cash  in  hand 
would  be  exceedingly  convenient,  if  not  absolutely  neces- 
sary, for  the  ordinary  operations  of  the  treasury  depart- 
ment. Congress,  however,  provided  that  all  the  surplus 
in  the  treasury  on  the  last  day  of  the  following  Decem- 
ber, after  payment  of  the  appropriations  of  the  present 
session,  should  be  applied  to  the  reduction  of  the  public 
debt ;  this  sum,  together  with  two  millions  more  which 
the  president  was  authorized  to  borrow,  to  constitute  a 
fund,  to  be  employed,  under  the  management  of  a  board 
composed  of  the  Chief  Justice,  the  President  of  the 
Senate,  the  Secretary  of  State,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  and  the  Attorney  General,  in  the  purchase  of 
securities  of  the  United  States  at  their  market  value,  if 
not  above  par.  These  securities,  so  purchased,  were  to 
be  vested  in  the  board,  and  the  interest  thereon,  by  the 
provision  of  a  subsequent  act,  was  to  be  applied  to  the 
purchase  of  further  securities,  with  a  reserve,  however, 
toward  the  discharge  of  the  borrowed  two  millions,  prin- 
cipal and  interest.  Such  was  the  sinking  fund  as  orig- 
inally established,  though  not  yet  known  by  that  name. 
One  object  in  establishing  this  sinking  fund  was  to  raise 
the  stock  in  the  market,  in  order  to  prevent  transfers  to 
Europe  at  depreciated  rates. 

Besides  these  acts,  more  immediately  connected  with 


220  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  funding  system,  several  other  laws  were  pi  ssed,  of 

great  interest  and  importance. 

1790.  An  act  providing  a  uniform  rule  of  naturalization  au- 
thorized all  courts  of  record  to  entertain  the  application 
of  "  alien  free  white  persons"  who  had  resided  within  the 
United  States  for  two  years,  and  on  proof  of  good  char- 
acter, and  their  taking  an  oath  or  affirmation  to  support 
the  Constitution,  to  admit  such  persons  as  citizens ;  but 
no  person  who  had  been  disfranchised  by  any  state,  under 
any  laws  passed  during  the  Revolution,  was  to  be  re- 
admitted as  a  citizen,  except  by  a  legislative  act  of  the 
state  to  which  he  had  formerly  belonged.  The  method 
of  procedure  above  prescribed  for  the  process  of  natural- 
ization has  ever  since  been  preserved,  the  power  of  ad- 
mitting new  citizens  being  still  possessed  by  all  courts  of 
record ;  but  the  necessary  preliminary  residence,  as  will 
presently  appear,  has  been  extended,  and  a  declaration 
required,  preliminary  to  the  actual  naturalization,  of  an 
intention  to  become  a  citizen. 

An  act  "  to  promote  the  useful  arts"  secured  to  citi- 
zens of  the  United  States,  the  inventors  of  new  machines 
or  processes,  or  of  improvements  upon  old  ones,  the  right 
to  enjoy,  under  letters  patent,  to  be  issued  by  a  board, 
consisting  of  the  secretaries  of  State  and  War  and  the 
Attorney  General,  the  sole  and  exclusive  use  of  their  in- 
ventions during  a  period  of  fourteen  years.  Two  years 
after,  the  sole  management  of  matters  relating  to  pat- 
ents was  intrusted  to  the  Secretary  of  State.  In  1836, 
the  growing  extent  of  this  business  led  to  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  special  officer,  subordinate  to  that  department, 
called  Commissioner  of  Patents,  to  whom  was  given  au« 
thority,  in  cases  which  might  seem  to  merit  such  indul- 
gence, to  give  an  extension  to  patents  for  seven  addi- 
tional years.  This  office  of  Commissioner  of  Patents 


REGULATION    OF    SEAMEN.  221 

now  constitutes  one  of  the  bureaus  of  the  recently-estab-  CHAPTER 
lished  Home  Department.  ' 

An  act  "  for  the  encouragement  of  learning"  secured  1790 
to  authors,  "  residents  in  the  United  States,"  a  copy -right 
for  fourteen  years,  and  if  the  author  were  living  at  the 
end  of  that  period,  for  an  additional  term'  of  fourteen 
years.  By  an  act  passed  in  1834,  the  original  term  has 
been  doubled,  and  the  benefit  of  a  renewal  secured  to  the 
wife  and  children  of  the  author. 

An  act  "  for  the  government  and  regulation  of  sea- 
men," based  on  the  ancient  maritime  usages  of  the  coun- 
try, and  still  in  force,  with  some  modifications,  required 
a  written  contract  to  be  entered  into  specifying  the  voy- 
age and  the  rate  of  wages.  Without  such  contract, 
the  terms  of  which  were  to  be  rigorously  enforced,  the 
master  had  no  hold  upon  his  men,  and  was  liable  to  pay 
them,  for  any  services  rendered,  the  highest  current  rate 
of  wages.  Manners  who  had  once  signed  the  shipping 
articles,  as  this  contract  was  called,  absenting  themselves 
or  deserting,  were  not  only  liable  to  forfeiture  of  their 
pay,  but  might  be  taken  on  board  by  force  and  com- 
pelled to  serve.  No  native  mariner  could  be  left  abroad 
under  severe  penalties.  The  ship  itself  was  made  liable 
for  the  wages  of  the  seamen.  Every  vessel  was  required 
to  have  on  board  a  medicine  chest,  and  a  certain  supply 
of  water  and  provisions.  The  unwritten  maritime  law 
of  the  United  States  gave  and  still  gives  to  the  master  a 
very  extensive  and  almost  despotic  authority,  liable  in 
many  cases  to  great  abuse,  but  thought  to  be  essential, 
since  the  safety  of  the  ship  and  crew  may  often  depend 
on  instantaneous  and  unhesitating  obedience  to  orders. 
In  cases  of  insubordination  or  of  insolence,  the  master 
possesses  the  right  to  punish  by  confinement;  and  it  is 
only  by  a  very  recent  act  of  Congress  (1850)  that  the  use 


222     HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  of  the  lash  on  shipboard  has  been  abolished  as  well  in 
'  merchant  vessels  as  in  ships  of  war. 

An  act  "to  regulate  trade  and  intercourse  with  the 
Indian  tribes,"  founded  also,  for  the  most  part,  on  the  dic- 
tates of  former  experience,  and  the  permanent  basis  of  the 
policy  of  the  United  States  on  this  subject,  excluded  all 
persons  from  traffic  with  the  Indians  except  under  license 
from  the  president.  No  sales  of  lands  by  the  Indians 
were  to  be  valid  unless  made  at  some  public  treaty,  held 
under  authority  from  the  United  States.  All  offenses 
against  the  persons  and  property  of  Indians  were  to  be 
prosecuted  and  punished  in  the  same  way  as  similar  of- 
fenses against  white  men. 

An  act  "for  the  punishment  of  crimes  against  the 
United  States/'  still  the  basis  of  the  federal  criminal  law, 
inflicted  the  penalty  oi%  death,  by  hanging,  upon  treason, 
murder,  piracy,  and  forgery  of  the  securities  of  the  Unit- 
ed States.  In  the  latter  case,  the  pena/ty  of  death  was 
strenuously  resisted  during  the  discussion  of  the  act,  and 
fine  and  imprisonment  have  since  been  substituted.  In 
capital  cases,  prisoners  were  to  have  a  copy  of  the  indict- 
ment, with  a  list  of  the  jurymen,  and  were,  in  all  cases, 
to  be  allowed  the  assistance  of  counsel,  and  to  have  the 
aid  of  the  process  of  the  court  for  summoning  their  wit- 
nesses ;  prisoners  standing  mute  and  refusing  to  plead 
were  to  be  considered  as  pleading  not  guilty ;  in  casea 
of  conviction,  no  forfeiture  of  estates  was  to  ensue,  nor 
corruption  of  blood  :  very  great  improvements  upon  tho 
harsh  and  cruel  policy  of  the  old  common  law.  Mis- 
prision  of  treason,  in  other  words,  knowledge  of  that  of- 
fense and  concealment  of  it,  maiming,  and  the  stealing 
or  falsifying  of  records,  were  to  be  punished  by  seven 
years'  imprisonment,  and  in  the  latter  case  by  a  public 
whipping  also,  not  exceeding  thirty-nine  lashes;  or  a  fine 


CRIMINAL    LAW.  22? 

of  $5000  might  be  imposed  as  a  substitute  for  these  CHAITEB 
punishments.  Misprision  of  other  capital  crimes  besides  ' 
treason,  being  accessory  to  them  after  the  fact,  man-  1790 
slaughter,  perjury,  correspondence  with  pirates,  conspir- 
acy to  rob  or  run  away  with  vessels,  violation  of  safe- 
conducts,  or  assault  on  the  person  of  embassadors  or 
other  public  ministers,  were  punishable  by  three  years' 
imprisonment,  and  in  case  of  perjury,  by  standing  in  the 
pillory  and  incapacity  to  testify.  In  most  of  these  cases, 
also,  fines  were  added  of  from  $500  to  $1000.  Four- 
fold restoration,  with  a  public  whipping  not  exceeding 
thirty-nine  stripes,  was  the  penalty  for  simple  larceny  or 
embezzlement,  half  the  amount  to  go  to  the  owner,  the 
other  half  to  the  informer.  The  giving  or  receiving  bribes 
was  punishable  with  fine  and  imprisonment  at  the  dis- 
cretion of  the  court.  Except  in  case  of  fugitives  from 
justice,  prosecutions  for  treason  under  this  act  must  be 
commenced  within  three  years  after  the  committing  of 
the  offense,  and  prosecutions  for  other  crimes  within  two 
years.  A  sort  of  undefined  jealousy  of  federal  authority 
led,  it  is  probable,  to  this  limitation,  still  in  force,  though 
unknown  to  the  common  law  or  to  any  of  the  state  codes. 
An  act  "  providing  the  means  of  intercourse  with  for- 
eign nations"  fixed  the  salaries  of  ministers  plenipoten- 
tiary at  $9000,  of  charges  des  affaires  at  half  that  sura. 
The  Senate  wished  to  vote  a  general  sum  for  the  ex- 
penses of  foreign  intercourse,  leaving  the  salaries  discre- 
tionary with  the  president,  but  to  this  the  House  would 
not  agree.  Yet  a  discrimination  in  the  sums  allowed 
would  seem  to  be  called  for  by  the  difference  of  expenses 
at  different  courts.  To  the  first  ministers  sent  to  Eu- 
rope the  Continental  Congress  had  guaranteed  the  pay- 
ment of  their  expenses,  with  an  additional  compensation 
for  their  time  and  trouble.  The  allowance  actually  made 


224  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAITER  had  been  fixed  at  first  at  $11,111  annually.     After  the 
peace,  a  resolution  of  the  Continental  Congress  had  re- 

1790.  duced  this  salary  to  $9000.  It  was  in  consequence  of 
this  reduction,  so  Jefferson  states,  that  Franklin  had  in- 
sisted on  his  recall,  that  amount  being  insufficient  to  pay 
his  expenses.  An  allowance  for  outfit  made  by  this  act 
was  probably  a  suggestion  of  Jefferson's,  who  had  insist- 
ed upon  it  in  his  own  case  as  necessary  and  proper. 

An  "  act  for  regulating  the  military  establishment" 
provided  for  a  standing  force  of  1216  rank  and  file,  to 
be  organized  into  four  battalions,  three  of  infantry  and 
one  of  artillery,  the  three  infantry  battalions  to  consti- 
tute a  regiment. 

The  Tonnage  Bill  was  remodeled,  but  the  duties  re- 
mained the  same.  Madison  made  another  attempt  to 
impose  discriminating  tonnage  duties  on  the  vessels  of 
nations  not  in  treaty  with  us  ;  .but,  though  he  carried  this 
proposition  through  the  House,  it  was  again  defeated 
in  the  Senate.  A  difference  between  the  two  houses  as 
to  the  powers  to  be  given  to  the  Postmaster  General 
defeated  a  bill  for  reorganizing  that  department.  The 
Senate  wished  to  give  the  Postmaster  General  a  dis- 
cretionary authority  in  the  establishment  of  post-roads, 
but  to  this  the  House  would  not  agree. 

The  appropriations  for  the  service  of  the  year  amount- 
ed to  $723,399  68  :  viz.,  civil  list,  $141,492  73  ;  for 
eign  intercourse,  $40,000  ;  military  establishment, 
$155,537  72  ;  Revolutionary  pensions,  $96,979  72  ; 
contingencies,  $10,000  ;  light-houses,  $147,139  54  ; 
old  debts,  $232,219  97.  Among  the  private  bills  passed 
was  one  granting  Baron  Steuben  an  annuity  of  $2000 
in  consideration  of  his  services.  After  a  laborious  ses- 

Ang.  12.  sion  of  seven  months,  Congress  finally  adjourned  to  meet 
again  in  December. 


NEW    CONSTITUTION    OF   GEORGIA.  225 


' 


CHAPTER   III. 

NEW  CONSTITUTIONS  OF  GEORGIA,  SOUTH  CAROLINA,  AND 
PENNSYLVANIA.  AMERICAN  THEATRICALS.  INDIAN  AF- 
FAIRS. THIRD  SESSION  OF  THE  FIRST  CONGRESS.  THE 
EXCISE.  NATIONAL  BANK.  VERMONT  AND  KENTUCKY 
ADMITTED  INTO  THE  UNION.  CONSTITUTION  OF  VER- 
MONT. BENEFICIAL  OPERATION  OF  THE  NEW  SYSTEM 
OF  FINANCE. 

VV  HILE  the  national  Legislature  had  been  employed  CHAPTER 
in  putting  the  new  federal  government  into  operation, 
constitutional  changes  of  considerable  importance  had 
been  made  in  several  of  the  states.     In  this  business 
Georgia  took  the  lead,  a  Constitutional  Convention  hav-    May. 
ing  been  in  session  simultaneously  with  the  first  session  October, 
of  Congress. 

The  effect  of  the  Federal  Constitution  as  a  model,  or 
of  those  political  views  which  had  determined  the  gener- 
al cast  of  that  instrument,  was  conspicuous  in  the  new 
Constitution  of  Georgia.  The  legislative  power,  instead 
of  being  vested,  as  before,  in  a  single  assembly,  was 
to  be  exercised  jointly  by  a  Senate  and  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, the  senators  to  be  chosen  for  three  years, 
one  by  each  of  the  eleven  counties.  They  were  required 
to  be  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  and  to  be  qualified,  like 
the  representatives  under  the  first  Constitution,  by  the 
possession  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  land,  or  oth- 
er property  to  the  value  of  $1200.  The  qualification 
of  members  of  the  House,  which  body  was  to  consist  of 
thirty-five  members,  was  the  possession  of  two  hundred 
acres  of  land,  or  other  property  to  the  value  of  $700. 
IV.— P 


226  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES, 

CHAPTER  No  clergyman  of  any  sect  could  be  a  member  of  eithei 
-  house.  The  test  of  Protestantism  required  by  the  first 
1789.  Constitution  was  dispensed  with.  The  elective  fran- 
chise was  extended  to  all  male  tax-paying  resident  free- 
men, the  former  property  qualification  being  dropped. 

The  governor  was  to  be  chosen  biennially,  the  House 
to  nominate  three  persons  as  candidates,  one  of  whom 
the  Senate  was  to  select;  the  candidates  to  be  thirty 
years  of  age,  the  owners  of  five  hundred  acres  of  land 
within  the  state,  and  of  other  property  to  the  value  of 
$4444  44.  The  powers  of  the  governor  were  consider- 
ably enlarged.  He  was  to  possess  the  pardoning  power, 
except  in  cases  of  treason,  the  appointment  of  all  militia 
officers,  and  a  veto  on  all  laws  not  repassed  by  a  two 
thirds  vote.  The  judges  and  other  civil  officers  were  to 
be  chosen  by  the  Assembly  in  the  same  way  with  the 
governor,  the  judges  for  three  years.  The  same  system 
of  county  courts  was  continued  as  before,  to  be  held  by 
the  chief  justice  of  the  state,  assisted  by  three  local 
judges  for  each  county;  but  the  Assembly  was  author- 
ized to  constitute  out  of  these  judges  a  Court  of  Errors 
and  Appeals,  empowered  to  grant  new  trials. 

This  Constitution,  like  the  former  one,  prohibited  en- 
tails, and  provided,  when  there  was  no  will,  for  an  equal 
distribution  of  all  estates,  landed  as  well  as  personal, 
among  all  the  children.  All  persona  were  to  enjoy  the 
free  exercise  of  religion  without  being  obliged  to  con- 
tribute to  the  support  of  any  religious  profession  but 
their  own. 

Georgia  was  rapidly  increasing  in  population,  and  as 
further  constitutional  changes  might  soon  become  neces- 
sary, it  was  provided  that  a  convention  of  three  persons 
from  each  county  should  meet  for  that  purpose  at  the 
end  of  five  years* 


AFFAIRS    OF    GEORGIA.  227 

The  part  of  Georgia  to  which,  at  this  time,  the  In-  CHAPTER 
tlian  title  had  been  extinguished,  and  which  had  begun     ., 
to  be  occupied  by  settlers,  was  limited  to  a  tract  along   1739 
the  Savannah  for  a  considerable  distance  above  Augusta, 
and  extending  westward  to  the  Altamaha  and  its  eastern 
branch  the  Oconee.      The  Indians  had  also  ceded  the 
seacoast  between  the  Altamaha  and  St.  Mary's,  but  this 
tract  was  almost  destitute  of  inhabitants.      By  far  the 
larger  part  of  what  now  constitutes  the  state  was  in  pos- 
session of  the  Creeks  and  Cherokees.     The  Georgians, 
however,  claimed   in   sovereignty,  with  exclusive  right 
of  pre-emption  from  the  Indians,  not  only  the  whole  of 
the  present  state,  but  also  the  district  w^est  of  the  Chat- 
tahoochee,  out  of  which  the  two  states  of  Alabama  and 
Mississippi  have  since  been  constituted. 

The  migration  from  the  older  districts  to  new  lands, 
which  prevailing  pecuniary  embarrassments  had  occasion- 
ed, had  given  rise  throughout  the  United  States  to  a  great 
spirit  of  land  speculation.  The  very  first  Legislature  of 
Georgia,  which  met  under  the  new  Constitution,  under- 
took to  sell  out,  to  three  private  companies,  the  pre-  Dec.  24. 
ernption  right  to  tracts  of  land  beyond  the  Chattahoo- 
chee — five  millions,  of  acres  to  the  South  Carolina  Ya- 
zoo  Company  for  the  sum  of  $66,964,  seven  millions 
of  acres  to  the  Yirginia  Yazoo  Company  for  $93,742, 
and  three  millions  and  a  half  of  acres  for  $46,875,  to 
the  Tennessee  Yazoo  Company.  It  was  one  of  the  con- 
ditions of  the  sale  that  the  money  should  be  paid  writhin 
two  years ;  but,  as  the  companies  insisted  upon  paying, 
not  in  cash,  but  in  the  depreciated  Georgia  paper,  a  suc- 
ceeding Legislature  took  advantage  erf  that  circumstance 
to  declare  the  bargain  at  an  end.  All  the  purchasers 
did  not  assent  to  this  view;  but  the  controversy  upon 
this  subject  was  quite  overshadowed  by  another,  which 


228  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  sprang  up  a  few  years  later,  growing  out  of  another  sale 
______  of  these  same  lands  to  other  companies,  and  giving  rise 

\1789    *°  ^ie  more  famous  Yazoo  claims,  qf  which  we  shall 
have  occasion  hereafter  to  speak. 

The  new  Legislature  fixed  the  seat  of  government  at 
Louisville,  a  new  town  west  of  Augusta,  and  pretty 
nearly  a  central  point  to  the  then  inhabited  territory. 

The  Legislature  of  1784,  at  the  instance  of  Baldwin 
and  Milledge,  both  distinguished  in  the  history  of  the 
state,  had  granted  forty  thousand  acres  of  wild  lands  to- 
ward  the  endowment  of  a  college,  and  the  next  year  a 
charter  had  been  granted,  and' a  board  of  trustees  organ- 
ized. But  this  land  was  situated  on  the  northwestern 
frontier,  and  first  the  danger  of  Indian  hostilities,  and 
afterward  the  difficulty  of  disposing  of  the  lands  except 
by  sale,  which  the  charter  prohibited,  kept  the  fund  for 
several  years  unavailable.  At  a  later  period,  on  the 
basis  of  this  fund,  the  University  of  Georgia  was  organ- 
ized at  Athens. 

1790.  The  example  of  Georgia  in  the  adoption  of  a  new  Con- 
stitution was  followed  the  next  year  by  South  Carolina. 
The  first  and  second  Constitutions  of  that  state,  those 
of  1776  and  1778,  had  been  merely  acts,  the  first  of  a 
Provincial  Congress,  the  second  of  the  State  Assembly. 
The  Constitution  now  formed,  the  one  still  in  force, 
though  since  amended  in  some  unimportant  particulars, 
was  the  work  of  a  Convention  specially  called  for  that 
June,  purpose,  which  met  at  Columbia,  a  new  town  then  re- 
cently laid  out,  near  the  center  of  the  state,  and  adopted 
the  preceding  year  as  the  seat  of  the  state  government. 

The  right  of  suffrage  was  given,  as  in  Georgia,  to  all 
free  white  tax-paying  citizens,  and  even  the  necessity  of 
paying  taxes  has  since  been  dispensed  with.  In  those 
states  in  which  slavery  prevails,  the  mere  possession  of 


NEW    CONSTITUTION    OF    SOUTH    CAROLINA.  2  2  I) 

freedom  alone  constitutes  for  the  white  man  a  sufficient  CHAPTLH 

distinction,  and  still  leaves  the  number  of  electors  com-__ 

paratively  small,  if  contrasted  with  the  total  population.  1790. 
But,  notwithstanding  this  shew  of  liberality  in  relation  to 
the  right  of  voting,  it  was  wealth,  not  numbers,  that  de- 
termined, and  still  determines  in  South  Carolina,  the 
balance  of  political  power.  The  old  election  districts, 
forty-three  in  number,  were  continued  as  before,  consist- 
ing in  the  lower  part  of  the  state  of  the  former  parishes : 
but  the  hundred  and  twenty-four  members,  biennially 
elected  to  compose  the  Lower  House  of  Assembly,  were 
distributed  among  these  districts  with  such  regard  to 
their  respective  wealth,  that  a  decided  majority  of  the 
House  was,  and  still  is,  returned  by  a  decided  minority 
of  the  free  white  inhabitants.  To  be  eligible,  the  candi- 
date must  be  a  free  white  man,  three  years  a  citizen  of 
the  state,  and  legally  seized  and  possessed  in  his  own 
right  "  of  a  settled  freehold  estate  of  five  hundred  acres 
of  land  and  ten  negroes,  or  of  a  real  estate  of.  the  value 
of  six  hundred  and  sixty-six  dollars  and  sixty-six  cents 
clear  of  debt;"  or  if  a  non-resident  in  the  district,  his 
estate  must  be  of  the  value  of  two  thousand  two  hundred 
and  twenty-two  dollars.  These  provisions,  at  least  the 
property  qualification  in  the  case  of  residents,  had  been 
contained,  or  implied  rather,  in  the  two  former  Constitu- 
tions ;  but  instead  of  any  open  mention  of  the  possession 
of  slaves,  those  Constitutions  had  merely  referred  to  the 
old  colonial  Election  Act,  by  which  that  qualification 
had  first  been  established. 

The  Senate  was  to  consist  of  thirty- six  members, 
chosen  by  thirty-four  districts,  two  of  the  districts  choos- 
ing two  members  each.  These  districts  were  generally 
the  same  with  the  representative  districts,  but  the  num- 
ber was  diminished  by  the  union  in  several  cases  of  two 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  or  more  of  the  poorer  ones  as  a  single  senatorial  district 
At  present  the  number  of  senators  is  forty-three,  one  be- 
ing  allowed  to  each  representative  district;  but,  as  in 
case  of  the  House,  a  minority  of  the  whole  number  of 
electors  chooses  a  majority  of  the  senators.  Elected  for 
four  years,  the  senators  are  divided  into  two  classes, 
one  half  going  out  biennially.  Every  senator  must  ba 
a  free  white  man,  thirty  years  of  age,  a  citizen  of  the 
state  for  five  years,  and  possessing  a  settled  freehold 
estate  of  the  value  of  one  thousand  three  hundred  and 
thirty-two  dollars  and  thirty-two  cents,  or  four  thousand 
four  hundred  and  forty-four  dollars  and  forty-four  cents 
in  case  of  a  non-residence  in  the  district. 

The  governor  and  lieutenant  governor,  chosen  by  joint 
ballot  of  the  Legislature  for  two  years,  must  be  thirty 
years  of  age,  ten  years  citizens  and  residents,  and  pos- 
sessed in  their  own  rights  of  settled  estates  of  the  value 
of  six  thousand  six  hundred  and  sixty-six  dollars  and 
sixty-six  cents  clear  of  debt.  They  could  hold  oifice 
only  two  years  out  of  six  ;  yet  the  power  of  the  governor 
was  limited  to  the  command  of  the  militia,  the  calling 
of  extra  sessions  of  the  Legislature,  the  granting  of  re- 
prieves and  pardons,  and  the  remitting  of  fines  and  for- 
feitures. The  choice  of  judges,  and  all  other  civil  offi- 
cers, was  vested  in  the  Legislature  in  joint  ballot,  and 
to  that  body,  also,  entire  control  was  given  over  the  con- 
stitution of  the  judiciary. 

A  carefully-limited  Bill  of  Rights,  in  six  short  articles, 
secured  trial  by  jury  and  liberty  of  the  press,  and  guarded 
against  ex  post  facto  laws  and  laws  violating  the  obliga- 
tion of  contracts.  All  power  is  declared  to  be  originally 
vested  in  the  people,  but  nothing  is  said  about  the  nat- 
ural equality  of  mankind. 

All  the  religious  tests,  and  the  provisions  for  an  estab* 


NEW   CONSTITUTION    OF    SOUTH    CAROLINA.     231 

lislied  church,  contained  in  the  Constitution  of  1778,  CHAPTER 

were  now  dropped,  the  "  free  exercise  and  enjoyment  of _ 

religious  profession  and  worship"  being  secured  to  "all  1790, 
mankind;"  but  this  liberty  was  not  to  justify  "acts  of  li- 
centiousness or  practices  inconsistent  with  the  peace  and 
safety  of  the  state."  Clergymen,  being  "  by  their  pro- 
fession dedicated  to  the  service  of  God  and  the  cure  of 
souls,"  were  excluded  from  seats  in  the  Legislature,  or 
from  holding  the  offices  of  governor  or  lieutenant  gov- 
ernor. The  rights  of  primogeniture  were  abolished,  and 
an  equal  distribution  was  directed  of  the  lands  of  intes- 
tates ainono-  all  the  children  or  next  of  kin.  Amend- 

O 

ments  might  be  made  by  a  eonvention,  in  the  call  of 
which  two  thirds  of  both  branches  of  the  Legislature 
should  concur;  or  by  acts  passed  by  like  majorities  of 
two  successive  Legislatures,  the  proposed  amendments 
being  published  for  three  months  in  the  interval. 

Though  this  Constitution  contained  some  concessions 
to  the  growing  spirit  of  political  liberality,  it  still  con- 
trived to  secure,  under  democratic  forms,  the  complete 
control  of  the  affairs  of  the  state  to  a  select  minority, 
to  whom  superior  wealth  and  intelligence  might  have 
given  advantage  enough  without  these  legal  provisions 
in  their  favor.  It  also  had  the  same  fault  which  Jef- 
ferson imputed  to  the  Constitution  of  Virginia.  There 
was  no  balance  or  distribution  of  powers;  but  the  whole 
political  authority  of  the  state,  even  to  the  extent  of 
making  alterations  in  the  Constitution,  was  concentrated 
in  the  hands  of  the  Assembly,  who  held  the  executive 
and  judicial  departments  in  complete  subjection,  thus 
constituting  what  Jefferson  denounced  in  the  case  of 
Virginia  as  little  better  than  "  an  elective  despotism." 

Pennsylvania,  in  her  first  Constitution,  formed  in 
1776,  had  adopted  the  policy  of  a  single  legislative  as- 


232  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  sembly  and  of  a  plural  executive,  the  nominal  chief 
_  magistrate  being  in  fact  only  president  of  the  Executive 
1790  Council,  but  with  no  more  authority  than  any  other 
member  of  it.  As  a  sort  of  substitute  for  a  senate,  and 
to  prevent  the  inconvenience  of  hasty  determinations,  all 
bills  of  a  public  nature  were  required  to  be  printed  for 
the  consideration  of  the  people  before  their  final  passage ; 
nor,  except  on  occasions  of  public  emergency,  were  they 
to  be  passed  till  a  succeeding^session.  But,  in  practice, 
this  provision  had  been  almost  entirely  dispensed  with, 
every  act  which  a  majority  conld  be  found  to  pass  being 
considered  a  matter  of  emergency.  Another  peculiarity 
was  the  provision  for  a  Council  of  Censors,  to  be  com- 
posed of  two  members  from  each  county,  to  meet  once 
in  seven  years,  wTith  authority  to  investigate  all  breaches 
of  the  Constitution,  and  to  recommend  changes  in  it. 
That  violence  of  party  spirit  for  which  Pennsylvania  had 
been  distinguished,  almost  from  the  first  day  of  her  set- 
tlement, found  ample  scope  in  the  attack  and  defense  of 
this  frame  of  government.  The  Republicans,  as  they  had 
called  themselves,  including  most  of  the  distinguished 
men  in  the  state,  objected  to  the  Constitution  its  want 
of  checks  and  balances,  and  of  a  proper  distribution  of 
authority ;  objections  regarded  by  the  other  party  as  in- 
dicating an  aristocratical  tendency,  the  Constitution  as 
it  stood  being,  in  their  eyes,  the  true  model  of  a  demo- 
cratic government.  About  the  time  of  the  ratification 
of  the  Federal  Constitution,  the  Republican  party  having 
acquired  the  control  both  of  the  Assembly  and  of  the 
Executive  Council,  a  project,  already  two  or  three  times 
defeated,  was  again  revived,  of  a  Convention  for  amend- 
ing the  state  Constitution,  which  was  said,  indeed,  to 
require  certain  modifications  to  adapt  it  to  the  new  fed- 
eral system.  Any  action  in  this  matter  on  the  part  of 


NEW    CONSTITUTION    OF    PENNSYLVANIA.       233 

the  Assembly  was  opposed  by  the  Constitutionalists,  who  CHAPTEP 

insisted  that,  by  an  express  provision  of  the  existing  Con- 

stitntion,  the  sole  power  of  calling  such  a  convention  ^^99 
\vas  vested  in  the  Council  of  Censors,  whose  constitution- 
al period  of  meeting  was  now  fast  approaching.  But  to 
this  the  other  party  objected  the  unequal  representation 
of  the  people  in  that  body,  each  county,  large  and  small, 
being  allowed  two  members;  also  the  restriction  upon 
any  effectual  action  in  the  requirement  of  two  thirds  of 
the  whole  number  for  calling  a  convention.  The  Con- 
stitutionalists also  relied  upon  an  oath  imposed  by  the 
first  Constitution  upon  all  persons  holding  office,  "not 
to  do  or  say  any  thing,  directly  or  indirectly,  that  should 
be  prejudicial  or  injurious  to  the  government  as  estab- 
lished." But  this  very  oath  was  denounced  by  the  Re- 
publicans as  inconsistent  with  the  rights  of  freemen,  and 
was  represented  as  in  itself  an  additional  reason  for  re- 
vising the  Constitution. 

An  act  having  passed  for  calling  a  Convention,  the 
opponents  of  the  existing  Constitution,  all  of  whom,  in 
national  politics,  professed  to  be  Federalists,  succeeded 
in  securing  a  small  majority.  The  most-  distinguished 
leaders  on  that  side  were  Wilson,  Mifflin,  and  Chief 
Justice  M'Kcan ;  and  among  the  younger  members, 
Ross,  Addison,  and  Sitgreaves.  The  chief  leaders  on 
the  other  side,  anti-Federalists  in  national  politics,  were 
Findley,  Smilie,  and  Snyder,  of  all  of  whom  we  shall 
have  occasion  hereafter  to  speak.  Gallatin  also  co-op- 
erated with  them ;  but  he  was  yet  undistinguished,  and 
his  share  in  the  debates  was  not  conspicuous. 

By  the  new  Constitution  as  adopted,  the  representa-  Sept.  2. 
tives  chosen  annually,  never  less  than  sixty  nor  more 
than  a  hundred,  were  to  be  distributed  among  the  coun- 
ties in  proportion  to  the  taxable  inhabitants,  to  be  ascer- 


.234  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  tained  once  in  seven  years,  the  same  basis  prescribed  in 
the  first  Constitution;  but  the  restriction  contained  in 
1790  that  Constitution,  to  serve  no  more  than  four  years  in  sev- 
en, was  dropped.  The  only  qualifications  required  were 
citizenship  of  the  state  for  three  years,  and  residence  in 
the  district  for  one  year.  The  senators,  never  more  than 
one  third  nor  less  than  one  fourth  the  number  of  repre- 
sentatives, were  to  be  apportioned  on  the  same  principle 
among  districts  to  be  formed  by  the  Legislature ;  but 
no  district  was  to  choose  more  than  four  senators.  The 
senators  must  be  twenty-five  years  of  age  and  four  years 
citizens  of  the  state.  They  were  to  serve  four  years, 
and  to  be  divided  into  four  classes,  one  class  to  go  out 
annually. 

As  the  want  of  a  seriate  had  been  one  chief  objection 
to  the  first  Constitution,  the  provisions  on  this  subject 
were  objects  of  special  interest.  The  committee  appoint- 
ed to  report  a  draft  of  a  new  Constitution,  in  order  to 
make  the  distinction  between  the  two  houses  as  marked 
as  possible,  had  proposed  to  imitate  the  Maryland  plan — 
long  persevered  in,  but  since  abandoned  by  that  state — 
of  a  choice  of  senators  not  directly  by  the  people,  but  by 
the  intervention  of  a  body  of  electors  specially  chosen 
for  that  purpose.  This,  it  was  argued,  would  secure  a 
Senate  more  respectable  and  select  than  if  the  choice 
were  made  directly  by  the  people.  Much  to  the  sur- 
prise and  disgust  of  many  of  his  political  friends,  and 
generally  of  the  party  with  which  he  acted,  this  idea 
was  vehemently  attacked  by  Wilson.  With  that  vein 
of  strong  good  sense  and  clear  appreciation  of  the  actual 
constitution  of  society  in  America,  of  which  he  had  given 
so  many  proofs  in  the  Federal  Convention,  he  pronounced 
this  contrivance  no  less  illusory  than  it  would  be  unpop- 
ular. The  longer  term  assigned  to  senators,  their  choice 


NEW    CONSTITUTION    OF    PENNSYLVANIA.      235 


by  larger  districts,  their  sitting  as  a  separate  body,  and  CHAPTER 

the  esprit  de  corps  which  would  thus  be  produced,  would 

render  the  two  houses  a  sufficient  check  upon  each  oth-  1790. 
er  without  any  difference  in  the  method  of  choice.    Wil- 
son carried  only- a  small  portion  of  his  party  with  him; 
but,  as  he  was  supported  by  the  whole  body  of  the  op- 
position, his  views  prevailed. 

The  executive  power  was  vested  in  a  governor,  to  be 
elected  by  the  people  for  the  term  of  three  years,  but  dis- 
qualified to  hold  the  office  more  than  nine  years  out  of 
twelve.  It  had  been  proposed  that  the  choice  of  gov- 
ernor should  be  made  through  the  medium  of  electors, 
but  the  eloquence  of  Wilson  prevailed  to  give  it  directly 
to  the  people.  In  the  extensive  authority  bestowed  upon 
this  officer,  the  model  of  the  Federal  Constitution  was 
closely  followed.  Like  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  he  had  a  qualified  veto  on  all  acts  of  the  Legis- 
lature, the  granting  of  reprieves  and  pardons,  and  the  ap- 
pointment to  all  offices  the  filling  of  which  was  not  oth- 
erwise provided  for. 

The  old  colonial  method  was  still  continued  of  the 
nomination  by  popular  vote  of  two  persons  in  each  county 
as  candidates  for  the  office  of  sheriff,  and  two  others  for 
the  office  of  coroner,  the  governor  to  fill  the  offices  re- 
spectively by  selecting  one  of  those  thus  nominated. 
The  election  of  state  treasurer  was  to  be  by  joint  ballot 
of  the  two  houses,  and  the  appointment  of  the  other 
treasury  officers  to  be  regulated  by  law.  With  these 
exceptions,  the  appointment  to  all  civil  offices  of  every 
description  was  in  the  sole  gift  of  the  governor,  whose 
patronage  was  thus  very  extensive,  far  exceeding  that 
possessed  by  any  other  state  governor,  and  superior,  in- 
deed, at  this  time,  to  that  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  Mifflin  was  chosen  the  first  governo!  under  this 


236  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STAPES. 

CHAPTER  Constitution,  St.  Glair,  the  opposing  candidate,  receiving 

'       but  few  votes. 

1790.  Every  tax -paying  citizen,  two  years  a  resident,  and 
the  sons  of  such  citizens  between  the  ages  of  twenty-one 
and  twenty -two,  were  entitled  to  vote.  All  elections, 
except  those  in  a  representative  capacity,  to  be  by  ballot 
—provisions  substantially  copied  from  the  first  Consti- 
tution. 

The  old  judicial  system  was  also  continued,  with  this 
alteration,  that  the  judges  of  the  higher  courts  were  to 
be  appointed,  not  for  seven  years,  as  the  first  Constitu- 
tion had  directed,  but  for  good  behavior.  They  were  to 
receive  an  adequate  fixed  compensation,  not  to  be  di- 
minished during  their  continuance  in  office ;  but,  by  a 
judicious  provision,  no  part  of  it  was  to  consist  in  fees 
or  perquisites.  The  unstable  tenure  and  the  dependence 
of  the  judiciary  had  been  one  chief  objection  uuged 
against  the  first  Constitution. 

The  Bill  of  Eights  re-enacted  the  old  colonial  provis- 
ion, copied  into  the  first  Constitution,  respecting  freedom 
of  worship,  the  rights  of  conscience,  and  exemption  from 
involuntary  contributions  for  the  maintenance  of  any 
ministry.  The  recognition  of  a  God,  and  of  a  future 
state  of  rewards  and  punishments,  seemed  still  to  be  re- 
quired as  a  qualification  for  holding  office ;  but  the  sub- 
scription which  the  first  Constitution  had  demanded  from 
the  members  of  Assembly  of  their  belief  in  the  divine 
inspiration  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  was  now 
dropped.  The  Legislature  were  directed  to  provide  "  as 
soon  as  conveniently  may  be"  for  the  establishment  of 
schools  throughout  the  state,  in  which  the  poor  might 
"be  taught  gratis;"  but  a  long  period  elapsed  before 
this  provision  was  carried  into  effect.  By  an  important 
republican  modification  in  the  English  law  of  libel,  since 


WYOMING    CONTROVERSY.  237 

generally  adopted  either  by  legislative  enactment  or  ju-  CHAPTER 

dicial  decisions  in  the  other  states,  in  all  cases  touching 

the  conduct  of  public  officers,  or  where  the  matter  was  1790. 
proper  for  public  information,  the  publication  might  be 
justified  by  giving  the  truth  in  evidence. 

After  remaining  in  force  for  near  fifty  years,  this  Con- 
stitution underwent,  in  1838,  some  modifications.  The 
patronage  of  the  governor  was  greatly  reduced,  the  con- 
currence of  the  Senate  being  required  in  the  appoint- 
ments to  judicial  offices,  and  the  election  of  all  county 
officers  being  given  to  the  people.  The  terms  of  judicial 
office  were  also  restricted  to  fifteen,  ten,  and  five  years, 
the  longer  periods  in  case  of  the  higher  courts.  Of  the 
political  experience  which  led  to  these  changes,  and 
which  has  produced  in  our  times  a  strong  and  still  grow- 
ing disposition  to  limit  the  period  of  judicial  office,  and 
to  give  the  appointment  of  all  officers,  even  those  of  a 
judicial  character,  directly  to  the  people,  we  may  find 
occasion  to  speak  hereafter. 

The  Wyoming  controversy,  growing  out  of  the  claim 
of  Connecticut  to  the  northern  portion  of  Pennsylvania, 
settled,  so  far  as  the  right  of  jurisdiction  was  concerned, 
by  the  federal  court  held  at  Trenton  in  1782,  had  yet 
left  behind  it  a  violent  contest  as  to  the  title  to  the  lands. 
An  attempt  in  favor  of  the  claimants  under  Pennsylva- 
nia grants  to  dispossess  the  Connecticut  settlers  by  force 
led  (1784)  to  a  collision,  in  which  some  blood  was  shed, 
known  among  the  New  England  settlers  as  the  "  second 
Pennamite  war,"  and  then  to  a  revival  in  Connecticut  of 
the  Susquehanna  Company,  and  of  a  claim  on  its  behalf, 
so  far  as  the  ownership  of  the  soil  was  concerned,  to  the 
whole  tract  of  northeastern  Pennsylvania,  originally  pur- 
chased of  the  Indians  by  the  Connecticut  adventurers. 
The  influx  of  new  settlers  under  grants  from  this  revived 


238  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Connecticut  Company,  and  the  purpose   on  their  part, 

scarcely  concealed,  to  imitate  the  example  of  Vermont- 

1790  by  wresting  this  district  from  the  jurisdiction  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  erecting  it  into  an  independent  state, 
had  brought  over  the  Pennsylvania  Assembly  to  a  more 
conciliatory  policy  toward  the  old  Connecticut  settlers, 
whom  it  was  hoped  to  detach  from  the  new  immi- 
grants. In  the  years  1786  and  1787  acts  had  passed 
for  confirming  the  settlers  of  prior  date  to  the  Trenton 
decision  in  possession  of  their  lands,  other  lands  else- 
where to  be  given  to  the  Pennsylvania  claimants.  At 
once  to  satisfy  the  inhabitants,  and  to  give  effect  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  Pennsylvania,  the  disputed  territory,  hith- 
erto attached  to  the  county  of  Northumberland,  had  been 
erected  into  a  new  county  called  Luzerne,  after  the 
French  embassador.  Timothy  Pickering,  adjutant  gen- 
eral, and  afterward  quarter-master  general  of  the  Rev- 
olutionary army,  himself  a  New  Englander,  having  pur- 
chased lands  and  resolved  to  settle  in  this  new  district, 
had  been  appointed  clerk  of  the  new  county,  and  com- 
missioner also  for  confirming  on  certain  conditions  the 
titles  of  all  settlers  prior  to  the  Trenton  decree.  For  his 
colleagues  in  this  business  the  Legislature  had  assigned 
to  him  Alexander  Patterson  and  John  Franklin,  the  lead- 
ers respectively  of  the  Pennsylvania  and  Connecticut  par- 
ties. Most  of  the  old  settlers  thus  confirmed  in  their 
titles  were  inclined  peaceably  to  submit ;  but  Franklin, 
who  had  taken  a  very  active  share  in  the  reorganization 
of  the  Susquehanna  Company,  was  not  so  easily  to  be 
appeased.  Jealous  of  his  movements,  Pickering  obtained 
a  warrant  against  him  for  high  treason,  and,  not  with- 
out some  difficulty  and  danger,  caused  him  to  be  arrest- 
ed, and  sent  a  prisoner  to  Philadelphia.  But  so  great  was 
the  excitement  which  this  proceeding  caused,  especially 


WYOMING    CONTROVERSY.  239 

among  the  more  recent  immigrants,  that  Pickering  judged  CHAPTER 

it  expedient  to  withdraw  for  a  season.     During  his  ab- 

seuce,  he  had  been  chosen  by  the  county  of  Luzerne  a  1790 
member  of  the  Pennsylvania  Convention  for  taking  into 
consideration  the  new  Federal  Constitution,  and,  encour- 
aged by  this  mark  of  confidence,  he  ventured,  after  the 
Convention  was  over,  to  return  again  and  resume  his  du- 
ties as  clerk  of  the  county.  But  Franklin  being  still 
detained  a  prisoner,  Pickering  himself  was  presently 
seized  in  his  bed  and  carried  off  into  the  woods,  to  be 
kept  as  a  hostage  for  Franklin's  safety.  After  a  deten- 
tion of  nineteen  days,  the  militia  of  the  neighboring 
counties  being  called  out,  Pickering's  captors  became 
alarmed,  and  lie  was  released.  These  disturbances  in 
Luzerne,  countenanced,  it  was  believed,  by  the  Connecti- 
cut members  of  the  Susquehanna  Company,  had  led  to 
the  suspension  of  the  law  confirming  the  old  Connecticut 
titles,  and,  a  few  months  before  the  meeting  of  the  Con- 
stitutional Convention,  to  its  total  repeal.  After  more  April 
than  a  year's  imprisonment,  the  obstinacy  of  Franklin 
had  yielded  at  last,  and  he  had  been  released  on  a  prom- 
ise to  make  no  more  opposition  to  the  authority  of  Penn- 
sylvania. An  indictment  for  high  treason  had  been 
found  against  him  at  the  first  session  of  the  Supreme 
Court  held  in  Luzerne,  but  that  indictment  was  never 
prosecuted.  Pickering,  elected  to  represent  the  county 
in  the  Constitutional  Convention,  put  his  hand  in  that 
capacity  to  the  new  Constitution.  There  was  no  more 
resistance  to  the  jurisdiction  of  Pennsylvania,  but  the 
repeal  of  the  confirming  lawr  left  matters  in  a  very  fever- 
ish state.  The  question  of  title  was  thus  thrown  into 
the  courts,  and  a  ten  years'  litigation  followed,  but,  from 
the  combination  among  the  settlers  to  maintain  each  oth- 
er in  possession,  with  very  little  fruit  to  the  Pennsjlvania 


240  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  claimants.      The  bitter  feelings   and  strong  prejudices 
'      thus  created  throughout  the  state  against  the  New  En- 


1790  glaRd  intruders,  and  hence  against  New  England  gener- 
ally, were  not  without  a  powerful  effect  upon  the  politics 
of  Pennsylvania,  helping,  among  other  things,  to  draw 
her  off  from  her  old  New  England  connection,  and  to 
throw  her  into  the  political  embrace  of  Virginia. 

Already  the  third  state  in  point  of  population,  indeed 
almost  equal  to  Massachusetts  in  that  respect,  and  des- 
tined soon  to  surpass  her,  with  a  central  situation,  ge- 
nial climate,  and  fertile  territory,  communicating  on  the 
east  with  the  Atlantic  arid  on  the  west  with  the  great 
valley  of  the  Mississippi,  and  possessing  in  Philadelphia, 
lately  the  federal  capital  and  again  soon  to  become  so, 
the  largest  and  wealthiest  city  in  the  Union,  Pennsylva- 
nia might  have  been  expected  to  take  a  leading  part  in 
national  politics.  But  from  this  she  was  disabled  by  sev- 
eral circumstances,  of  which  the  principal  was  the  want 
of  homogeneity  and  community  of  feeling  among  the 
various  classes  of  her  population.  The  Episcopalians, 
the  Quakers,  and  the  Presbyterians,  the  latter  mostly  of 
Scotch  Irish  origin,  were  kept  apart  by  strong  mutual  an- 
tipathies, while  the  great  body  of  the  Germans,  many  of 
whom  did  not  even  speak  the  English  language,  formed 
a  still  more  distinct  class  by  themselves.  Add  to  this 
those  great  differences  in  political  sentiment  which  had 
sprung  up  in  Pennsylvania  during  the  Revolutionary  war. 
A  large  portion  of  her  inhabitants  had  been  disaffected 
to  the  Revolution,  while  those  who  supported  it  had  been 
divided  into  two  very  bitter  and  hostile  parties,  a  state 
of  things  in  strong  contrast  to  the  unanimity  of  feeling 
which  had  prevailed  in  Virginia  and  Massachusetts,  and 
which  had  given  to  them  that  political  leadership  which 
they  still  retained.  This  unanimity,  indeed,  was  soon  a 


AFFAIRS    OF    PENNSYLVANIA.  241 

good  deal  broken  in  Massachusetts  ;  but,  being  preserved  CHAPTER 

in  Virginia  to  a  remarkable  degree,  it  went  far  toward 

securing  to  that  state  the  complete  political  ascendency  1790 
to  which  she  ultimately  attained,  and  of  which  Pennsyl- 
vania served  as  but  a  passive  instrument.  In  political 
consideration,  apart  from  the  mere  number  of  her  votes, 
that  state  long  remained  below  even  New  York,  Con- 
necticut, Maryland,  and  South  Carolina,  an  inferior  po- 
sition from  which  she  has  but  very  gradually  and  not  yet 
entirely  emerged. 

The  political  influence  of  the  Quakers,  once  predomi- 
nant, had  disappeared  before  the  Revolution,  and  they 
now  labored  also  under  the  obloquy  of  having  been  dis- 
affected or  lukewarm  toward  that  change.  Yet  they 
still  strove,  and  not  without  success,  to  bring  their  own 
peculiar  principles  of  trust  in  humanity  and  long-suffer- 
ing patience  to  operate  on  the  political  institutions  of  the 
state ;  and  their  influence  and  efforts  contributed  not  a 
little  to  mitigate  the  penal  code,  by  restoring  it  to  the 
condition  in  which  it  stood  before  the  original  Quaker 
enactments  had  been  superseded  by  adopting  the  En- 
glish law.  To  them  also  the  state  was  indebted  for 
that  improved  system  of  prison  discipline  then  just  be- 
ginning to  be  carried  into  practice,  which  has  served  for 
a  study  and  a  model,  not  to  the  sister  states  only,  but  to 
the  most  enlightened  nations  of  Europe.  Of  their  efforts 
on  the  subject  of  slavery  and  the  slave  trade,  we  have 
already  seen  something  and  shall  see  more. 

In  another  object  which  the  Quakers  had  much  at 
heart,  they  were  not  so  successful.  That  object  was  the 
continued  interdiction  of  theatrical  entertainments,  sus- 
pended throughout  the  states  at  the  commencement  of 
the  Revolution,  but  which  attempts  were  being  made 
again  to  revive  by  that  same  company  of  actors  which, 
TV.— Q 


242  HISTORY    01     THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  in  1752,  had  first  introduced  into  the  North  American 
'  colonies  the  regular  performance  of  stage-plays.  The 
1790.  company,  of  course,  had  undergone  great  changes,  but  it 
was  still  headed  by  Lewis  Hallam,  son  of  the  original 
manager,  and  himself,  though  then  a  boy,  one  of  the 
original  theatrical  emigrants  to  America.  This  company, 
in  1774,  had  theaters  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  An- 
napolis, and  Charleston.  But  the  Continental  Congress 
having  passed  a  resolution  recommending  the  discontinu- 
ance and  discouragement  of  "  shows,  plays,  and  other  ex- 
pensive diversions  and  entertainments,"  "  though  stren- 
uously urged  by  Governor  Try  on  and  General  Robertson 
to  contravene  the  resolution"  (so  at  least  Hallam  alleged, 
in  a  memorial  to  the  Massachusetts  Legislature),  the 
company  "  determined  to  leave  the  Continent  rather  than 
offend  the  patriotic  supporters  of  their  country's  free- 
dom." They  had  sailed,  accordingly,  for  Jamaica  prior 
to  the  commencement  of  hostilities,  "  and  in  the  torrid 
zone  languished  out  ten  tedious  years,"  so  says  the  me- 
morial, *<  consoling  themselves  with  the  pleasing  anticipa- 
tion of  the  glorious  peace  that  was  at  length  effected. 
During  the  whole  distressful  war  they  sympathized  with 
their  country,  they  drooped  when  she  bled,  they  rejoiced 
when  she  triumphed.  Reiterated  applications  were  made 
to  them  by  all  the  different  commanders  at  New  York, 
while  the  war  continued,  to  return,  accompanied  with 
assurances  of  great  encouragement  and  most  flattering 
prospects  of  pecuniary  advantages.  But,  though  they 
were  suffering  great  loss  of  property,  and  debilitating 
their  constitutions  in  a  burning  climate,  they  scorned 
them  all ;  they  felt  themselves  Americans,  and  would  not 
act  in  opposition  to  their  country." 

Upon  their  return  to  the  United  States,  and  the  re- 
opening of  their  theaters  in  1785  in  Philadelphia  and 


AMERICAN    THEATRICALS.  24JJ 

New  York,   these    patriotic  players  had  been   received  CHAPTER 

on   the   part  of  many   with   marked   signs  of  aversion.  , _ 

Massachusetts  had  then  lately  re-enacted  her  old  colonial  1790 
statute  prohibiting  theatrical  performances.  A  similar 
law  was  passed  in  Pennsylvania  in  1786  ;  and  even 
South  Carolina,  by  an  act  of  the  next  year,  had  classed 
all  persons  representing  publicly  for  hire  "  any  play  or 
entertainment  of  the  stage"  as  vagrants,  who  might  be 
required  to  give  security  for  good  behavior,  or  be  com- 
mitted to  the  county  jail,  and,  at  the  option  of  the  court, 
sold  for  a  term  not  exceeding  one  year.  An  attempt  to 
obtain  a  similar  law  in  New  York  did  not  succeed.  It 
was  at  this  inauspicious  moment,  in  1786,  that  the  first 
American  play  ever  performed  on  the  stage  was  brought 
out  at  New  York — "  The  Contrast,"  a  cornedy  by  Royal 
Tyler,  a  young  lawyer,  afterward  Chief  Justice  of  Ver- 
mont, and  whose  story  of  the  "  Algerine  Captives,"  de- 
signed to  excite  sympathy  on  behalf  of  the  American 
citizens  held  in  slavery  by  the  Barbary  pirates,  had  at 
one  time  no  little  celebrity. 

The  actors  did  not  rest  quiet  under  the  legal  restric- 
tions thus  imposed  upon  them.  Their  petition  to  the 
Pennsylvania  Legislature,  after  the  power  had  passed  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  Constitutionalists,  had  procured,  in 
1789,  the  repeal  of  the  prohibitory  act.  Nor  could  the 
Quakers,  though  they  made  repeated  efforts,  ever  again 
obtain  its  re-enactment.  In  1790.  Hallam  presented  to 
the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  the  memorial  quoted 
above,  asking  leave  to  open  a  theater  in  Boston.  This 
petition  was  rejected  ;  but  the  next  year  the  subject 
was  brought  before  the  town  on  tbo  petition  of  several 
citizens,  and  a  vote  was  passed  in  town  meeting,  in- 
structing the  Boston  representatives  to  exert  their  influ- 
ence with  the  General  Court  to  obtain  a  repeal  of -the 


244  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  prohibitory  law.      This  effort  failed  as  before.      Mean 
while,  however,  in  1791,  South   Carolina  repealed  hei 
1790.  law  upon  the  subject. 

In  spite  of  the  unrepealed  act  of  Massachusetts,  a 
small  theater  was  built  in  Boston,  which  was  opened  in 
1792  as  the  "New  Exhibition  Room."  To  the  Legis- 
lature which  met  shortly  after,  Governor  Hancock  com* 
plained  "  that  a  number  of  aliens  and  foreigners  had 
lately  entered  the  state,  and  in  the  metropolis  of  the  gov- 
ernment, under  advertisements  insulting  to  the  habits 
and  education  of  the  citizens,  had  been  pleased  to  invite 
them  to,  and  to  exhibit  before  such  as  attended,  stage 
plays,  interludes,  and  theatrical  entertainments,  under 
the  style  and  appellation  of  moral  lectures."  All  which, 
as  he  complained r  had  been  suffered  to  go  on  without 
any  steps  taken  to  punish  "a  most  open  breach  of  the 
laws  and  a  most  contemptuous  insult  to  the  powers  of 
government."  Shortly  after  this  denunciation  by  the 
governor,  suddenly  one  night,  in  the  midst  of  the  per- 
formance of  the  School  for  Scandal,  the  sheriff  of  the 
county  appeared  on  the  stage,  arrested  the  actors,  and 
broke  up  the  performances.  When  the  examination  came 
on,  having  procured  able  counsel,  the  actors  were  dis- 
charged on  the  ground  that  the  arrest  was  illegal,  the 
warrant  not  having  been  sworn  to.  This  defect  was  soon 
remedied,  and  a  second  arrest  brought  the  performan- 
ces to  a  close.  But  the  Legislature,  finding  the  senti- 
ment of  the  town  of  Boston  strong  against  the  law,  and 
that  a  new  and  permanent  theater  was  in  the  course  of 
erection,  repealed  the  act  a  few  months  after.  This  was 
in  1793,  the  desire  to  tell  this  whole  story  at  once  hav 
ing  carried  us  nearly  three  years  beyond  the  period  to 
which  the  present  chapter  more  particularly  relates. 

Not  discouraged  by  the  ill  success  of  his  first  attempt 


CREEK  TREATY  AT  NEW  YORK.       245 

to  negotiate  with  the  Creeks,  Washington  had  dispatched  CHAPTER 

Colonel  Willett  on  a  new  mission  to  that  confederacy 

Willett  had  persuaded  the  chief,  M'Gillivray,  to  proceed  1790. 
to  New  York,  where  the  negotiation  might  be  carried  on 
with  less  liability  to  interruption,  or  influence  from  local 
interests  or  wishes.  Accompanied  by  twenty-eight  prin- 
cipal chiefs  and  warriors  of  his  nation,  M'Gillivray  was 
very  cordially  and  ceremoniously  received  both  at  Phila- 
delphia, as  he  passed  through  it,  and  in  New  York,  where 
he  arrived  while  Congress  was  still  in  session.  In  his  June  23. 
reception  at  New  York,  a  leading  part  was  taken  by 
the  Tammany  Society,  or  Columbian  Order,  an  associa- 
tion then  recently  instituted,  afterward  famous  from  its 
connection  with  politics,  over  which  it  still  claims  to  ex- 
ercise a  certain  influence.  Professing  to  be  a  national 
society,  "  founded  on  the  true  principles  of  patriotism, 
and  having  for  its  motives  charity  and  brotherly  love," 
:ts  pageantry  exhibited  a  strange  jumble  of  European 
and  Indian  ideas.  The  ideal  patrons  of  the  society  were 
Columbus  and  Tammany,  the  last  a  legendary  Indian 
chief,  once  lord,  it  was  said,  of  the  island  of  Manhattan, 
and  now  adopted  as  the  patron  saint  of  America.  The 
association  was  divided  into  thirteen  tribes,  each  tribe  typ- 
ifying a  state,  presided  over  by  a  sachem.  There  were 
also  the  honorary  posts  of  warrior  and  hunter,  and  the 
council  of  the  sachems  had  at  their  head  a  grand  sachem, 
a  type  evidently  of  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
Arrayed  in  their  Indian  dresses,  this  society  escorted 
M'Gillivray  and  his  Creeks  into  the  city,  and  afterward 
entertained  them  at  a  public  dinner.  As  being  the  son 
nf  a  Scotsman,  M'Gillivray  was  also  chosen  an  honorary 
•member  of  the  St.  Andrew's  Society.  Having  first  ob- 
tained the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate  as  to  the 
terms  of  an  arrangement,  Washington  appointed  Knox 


246  HISTORY"    OF   THE    UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  as  commissioner  to  negotiate  with  the  Creeks ;  ana  a 
'  treaty  having  been  concluded,  it  was  solemnly  ratified 
1790.  the  day  after  the  adjournment  of  Congress.  The  presi- 
Aug.  13  dent,  with  his  suite,  met  the  Creek  chiefs  in  the  hall  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  in  presence  of  a  large  as- 
sembly. The  treaty  having  been  first  read  and  inter- 
preted, Washington  addressed  the  Indians,  who  gave  to 
each  paragraph  of  his  speech,  as  it  was  interpreted  to 
them,  an  audible  and  emphatic  assent.  Having  signed 
the  treaty,  he  presented  a  string  of  wampum  as  a  me- 
morial of  the  peace,  and  a  paper  of  tobacco  to  smoke  in 
commemoration  of  it — a  substitute,  it  would  seem,  for 
the  old  Indian  custom  of  actually  smoking  the  calumet. 
On  receiving  these  tokens,  M'Gillivray  made  a  short  re- 
ply, to  which  followed  the  "  shake  of  peace,"  a  shaking 
of  hands  interchanged  between  Washington  and  each  of 
the  chiefs.  The  ceremony  was  then  concluded  by  a 
"song  of  peace,"  in  which  all  the  chiefs  joined. 

Mutual  concessions  were  made  by  this  treaty.  All 
the  territory  south  and  west  of  the  Oconee,  including  the 
tract  recently  claimed  and  partly  occupied  by  the  Geor- 
gians, was  solemnly  guaranteed  to  the  Creeks,  they  re- 
signing all  pretensions  to  any  lands  north  and  east  of  that 
river,  and  acknowledging  themselves  to  be  under  the  sole 
protection  of  the  United  States.  There  was  to  be  a  mu- 
tual exchange  of  prisoners,  and  all  Creeks  hereafter  com- 
mitting murder  or  robbery  upon  any  white  inhabitant 
were  to  be  given  up  for  punishment,  the  Creeks,  how- 
ever, reserving  the  right  to  punish  at  their  discretion  any 
white  men  intruding  on  their  lands.  As  an  inducement 
to  the  Indians  to  come  into  this  arrangement,  and  to  se- 
cure their  fidelity,  it  was  provided  by  a  secret  article  that 
presents  to  the  value  of  $1500  should  annually  be  dis- 
tributed among  the  nation.  Annuities  of  one  hundred 


INDIAN    RELATIONS.  247 

dollars  were  also  secured  to  six  of  the  principal  chiefs,  and  CHAPTEH 
to  M'Gillivray  $1200  annually,  in  the  name  of  salary  . 

as  agent  of  the  United  States.     He  was  also  to  enjoy  the  1790. 
privilege  of  importing  goods  for  supplying  the  Indians 
duty  free. 

The  giving  up  to  the  Indians  of  the  lands  south  and  west 
of  the  Oconee  occasioned  great  dissatisfaction  in  Georgia. 
An  association  was  formed  among  some  of  the  more  vio- 
lent for  settling  those  lands  in  spite  of  the  treaty  ;  but 
this  bravado  does  not  seem  to  have  been  persisted  in. 
The  Legislature  passed  resolutions  in  which  several  arti- 
cles of  the  treaty  were  severely  criticised,  preceded,  how- 
ever, by  a  declaration  that  the  arrangement  was  legal 
and  binding,  and  pledging  the  faith  of  the  state  to  sup- 
port it.  Even  among  the  Creeks  themselves  it  met  with 
some  opposition,  excited  by  one  Bowles,  a  white  man,  a 
native  of  Maryland,  formerly  an  Indian  agent  under  the 
British  authority,  who  arrived  about  this  time  from  Ber- 
muda, pretending  British  support,  and  seeking  to  set 
himself  up  as  a  sort  of  rival  to  M'Gillivray. 

An  attempt  to  arrange  matters  with  the  Western  In- 
dians was  less  successful.  Encouraged  by  Sir  John 
Johnson,  the  former  British  Indian  agent,  and  by  the 
British  authorities  in  Canada,  where  Sir  Guy  Carleton, 
now  Lord  Dorchester,  was  again  governor,  the  Western 
tribes  insisted  on  re-establishing  the  Ohio  as  the  Indian 
boundary,  nor  would  they  listen  to  any  other  terms.  The 
hostile  warriors  infested  the  banks  of  that  river,  way- 
faying  the  boats  in  which  emigrants  descended ;  and  they 
still  continued  their  incursions  into  Kentucky,  attacking 
the  more  remote  stations,  and  committing  many  murders. 

An  attempt  at  retaliation  had  been  made  in  the  spring    April 
by  a  party  of  two  hundred  and  thirty  Kentucky  volun- 
teers, joined  by  a  hundred  regulars  from  Fort  Washing- 


248  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  ton.  They  marched  under  Harmer  to  the  Scioto,  but 
found  the  Indian  camp  deserted,  and  returned  without 
1790.  accomplishing  any  thing.  A  more  formidable  expedi- 
tion, consisting  of  three  hundred  and  twenty  regulars, 
joined  by  two  quotas  of  militia,  one  from  Pennsylvania, 
the  other  from  Kentucky,  amounting  in  the  whole  to 
eleven  hundred  men,  called  out  by  order  of  the  presi- 
<>ct.  dent,  marched  in  the  autumn  against  the  Miami  village 
of  the  Maumee,  where  now  stands  the  town  of  Fort 
Wayne.  On  the  approach  of  this  force  the  Indians  fled. 
Their  village  was  burned,  and  their  corn-fields  were  rav- 
aged ;  but  Colonel  Hardin,  detached  in  pursuit  with  a 
hundred  and  fifty  of  his  Kentucky  militia  and  thirty  reg- 
ulars under  Captain  Armstrong,  after  a  march  of  about 
six  miles,  fell  into  an  ambush,  when  the  militia  took  to 
flight  at  the  first  alarm,  without  hardly  firing  a  gun,  de- 
serting the  regulars,  who  stood  firm  till  most  of  them  were 
killed.  The  Indians  remained  on  the  field,  and  during 
the  night  held  a  dance  of  victory,  exulting  with  frantic 
shouts  and  gestures  over  their  dead  and  dying  enemies,  a 
ceremony  of  which  Captain  Armstrong  was  a  constrained 
and  wretched  witness,  being  sunk  to  his  neck  in  mud  and 
water  within  a  hundred  yards  of  the  scene.  The  In- 
dians approached  Harmer's  camp,  and  some  skirmishing 
ensued  ;  but  he  moved  oft*  a  day  or  two  after,  without  at- 
tempting to  bring  them  to  action.  Soon,  however,  he 
seems  to  have  changed  his  mind  ;  for  on  the  second  day's 
march,  when  about  ten  miles  from  his  late  camp,  he  called 
a  halt,  and  sent  Hardin  back  to  the  ruined  town  with  some 
sixty  regulars  and  three  hundred  militia.  The  Indians 
found  there  separated  themselves  into  small  parties,  and, 
seeming  to  fly,  drew  off  the  militia  in  pursuit,  when  sud- 
denly a  band  not  hitherto  seen  rose  from  the  grass  and 
attacked  the  regulars  with  their  tomahawks.  Recalled 


MODIFICATION   OF  PARTIES.  245 

from  their  vain  pursuit,  the  militia  presently  carne  to  the  CIIAPTEF 

aid  of  the  regulars;   but,  after   a  hard  and  murderous 

struggle,  the  whites  were  driven  from  the  ground,  leav-  1790. 
ing  fifty  of  the  regulars  behind  them,  and  twice  as  many 
militia.  Thus  repulsed,  Harmer  retired  withorit  at- 
tempting any  thing  further,  though,  strangely  enough, 
claiming  a  victory.  Out  of  this  unfortunate  expedition 
grew  many  jealousies  and  discontents.  Harmer  and  Har- 
din  were  'tried  by  court-martial.  Both  were  acquitted, 
but  Harmer  resigned  his  commission. 

That  anti-Federal  feeling  which  at  first  had  vented  it- 
self in  criticisms  on  the  new  Constitution  and  demands 
for  amendments,  began,  simultaneously  with  the  adjourn- 
ment of  Congress,  to  transform  itself  into  an  opposition 
to  the  financial  policy  of  the  government.  Openly  to 
assail  the  funding  of  the  Continental  debt,  whatever 
might  be  the  feelings  of  many  on  that  subject,  would 
hardly  have  been  promising  ground  for  a  party  to  stand 
upon.  The  assumption  of  the  state  debts  was,  therefore, 
made  the  great  subject  of  complaint ;  a  new  topic  of  po- 
litical discontent,  which  made  a  considerable  change  in 
the  party  relations  of  individuals.  Gerry,  by  his  earn- 
est advocacy  of  the  assumption,  and,  indeed,  by  his  gen- 
eral support  of  the  financial  system  of  the  government, 
seemed  to  have  become  almost  a  Federalist;  while  Madi- 
son, regarded  during  the  first  session  of  Congress  as  the 
great  federal  champion,  by  his  more  recent  course  had 
come  to  identify  himself  very  much  with  the  opposition, 
and  thereby  to  re-establish  a  political  sympathy  between 
himself  and  the  ruling  majority  of  his  own  state. 

The  Virginia  Assembly,  as  the  head  of  the  opposition, 
sounded  the  key  note  in  a  resolution,  carried  through  Nov.  3 
the  House  of  Delegates  by  a  vote  of  seventy-five  to  fif- 
ty-two, declaring  so  much  of  the  late  act  of  Congress  a» 


250  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  provided  for  the  assumption  of  the  state  debts  "  repug- 
nant to  the  Constitution  -of  the  United  States,"  as  be- 
1790  ing  "the  exercise  of  a  power  not  expressly  granted 
to  the  general  government."  Even  the  funding  of  the 
Continental  debt  did  not  escape  censure  ;  so  much  of  the 
act  as  restrained  the  United  States  from  redeeming  at 
pleasure  any  part  of  that  debt  being  denounced  as 
»<  dangerous  to  the  rights  and  subversive  of  the  interests 
of  the  people."  A  memorial  in  relation  to  these  two 
subjects  was  ordered  to  be  drawn  up,  to  be  presented 
to  Congress.  A  resolution  was  also  passed  recommend- 
ing that  the  doors  of  the  Senate,  while  that  body  was 
engaged  in  legislative  matters,  should  be  open  to  the 
public — a  recommendation  seconded  by  the  Legislatures 
of  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  the  two  Carolinas. 
While  censuring  the  assumption  of  the  state  debts,  the 
Virginia  Assembly  evinced,  however,  its  satisfaction  at 
the  act  by  means  of  which  that  assumption  had  been 
carried  through  the  House  for  fixing  the  permanent  seat 
of  the  federal  government  on  the  Potomac.  They  voted 
the  sum  of  $110,000  toward  the  erection  of  the  public 
buildings,  and  the  Legislature  of  Maryland  appropriated 
$70,000  to  the  same  purpose. 

The  Legislature  of  North  Carolina  had  scornfully  re- 
fused to  take  an  oath  to  support  the  Federal  Constitu- 
tion, as  well  as  to  pass  an  act,  requested  by  Congress  of 
all  the  states,  to  allow  to  the  federal  government  the 
Mov.  24.  use  of  the  state  jails.  At  the  session  succeeding  the 
adjournment  of  Congress,  very  violent  resolutions  were 
brought  forward  on  the  subject  of  the  assumption  of  the 
state  debts.  But  the  party  which  had  secured  the  rat- 
ification of  the  Federal  Constitution  having  rallied  to 
prevent  their  passage,  the  Legislature  was  induced  to 
content  itself  with  complaints  of  the  secrecy  of  the  sen- 


THIRD    SESSION    OF    THE    FIRST    CONGRESS.    25] 

atorial  debates,  and  of  the  enormous  salaries  allowed  to  CHAPTER 
federal  officers.  ' 

Meanwhile,  in  conformity  to  the  late  act  to  that  ef-  1790. 
feet,  the  departments  of  the  federal  government  had 
transferred  themselves  to  Philadelphia.  In  the  old 
court-house  on  Chestnut  Street,  convenient  accommoda- 
tions for  the  two  houses  of  Congress  had  been  fitted  up 
by  order  of  the  city  councils.  When  Congress  met  for  Dec.  6 
its  third  session  two  new  members  from  Virginia  made 
their  appearance,  the  one  in  the  House,  the  other  in  the 
Senate,  both  soon  conspicuous  in  national  affairs.  In 
the  House,  William  B.  Giles,  a  lawyer  from  the  Peters- 
burg district,  supplied  the  seat  made  vacant  by  Eland's 
death.  A  vacancy  in  the  Senate,  occasioned  by  the  death 
of  Grayson,  was  filled  by  James  Monroe.  Descended 
from  an  ancient  family  of  Virginia,  and  educated  at  the 
College  of  William  and  Mary,  Monroe  had  entered, 
in  his  eighteenth  year,  the  military  service  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Revolution,  had  served  through  the 
campaign  of  1776  as  lieutenant  in  one  of  the  Virginia 
regiments,  had  been  wounded  at  the  battle  of  Trenton, 
and,  in  the  two  following  campaigns,  had  acted  as  an 
aid-de-camp  to  Lord  Stirling.  Having  attempted  to 
raise  a  regiment  in  Virginia,  but  without  success,  he 
commenced  the  study  of  the  law  under  Jefferson,  then 
governor  of  Virginia,  by  whom  he  had  been  sent,  after 
the  fall  of  Charleston,  to  South  Carolina,  to  report  on 
the  means  of  aiding  that  state.  Elected  in  1782  a 
member  of  the  Virginia  Legislature,  he  had  shortly  af- 
terward been  placed  in  the  executive  council,  and  in 
1783  had  been  appointed  to  succeed  Madison  in  the 
Continental  Congress,  which  place  he  held  for  three 
years,  the  limit  prescribed  by  the  Articles  of  Confedera- 
tion. In  1787  he  was  again  elected  to  the  state  Legis- 


252  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  lature,  and  the  next  year  had  been  a  member  of  the  Con 
in. 
'      vention  to  consider  the  Federal  Constitution.      In  that 

1790.  body  he  had  taken  a  decided  stand  against  ratification,  a 
merit — for  so  it  was  considered  in  Virginia — which  now 
helped  to  place  him  in  the  federal  Senate.  Another 
change  in  that  body  had  been  occasioned  by  the  retire- 
ment of  Patterson,  chosen  to  fill  the  place,  as  governor 
of  New  Jersey,  left  vacant  by  the  death  of  that  eminent 
Revolutionary  patriot,  William  Livingston.  Patterson's 
seat  was  filled  by  Philemon  Dickinson,  who  had  rendered 
good  service  during  the  Revolutionary  war  as  command- 
er of  the  New  Jersey  militia. 

The  president's  speech  congratulated  Congress  on  the 
financial  prosperity  of  the  country,  evinced  by  the  un- 
expected productiveness  of  the  import  duties,  which,  in 
little  more  than  thirteen  months,  up  to  the  end  of  Sep 
tember,  had  produced  the  sum  of  $1,900,000.  In  con- 
sequence of  the  improving  credit  of  the  country,  certifi- 
cates of  the  domestic  debt  had  risen  to  seventy-five  cents 
on  the  dollar.  A  loan,  in  part  execution  of  the  powers 
intrusted  to  him  for  the  liquidation  of  the  foreign  debt, 
had  been  obtained  in  Holland  without  difficulty  and  on 
favorable  terms.  Attention  was  called  to  the  state  of 
the  Western  frontier,  a  short  account  being  given  oi 
the  expedition  authorized  under  Harmer,  rumors  of  the 
repulse  of  which  just  began  to  arrive.  After  some  allu- 
sions to  the  disturbed  state  of  Europe,  the  consideration 
was  suggested  of  measures  for  the  protection  of  American 
commerce,  especially  in  the  Mediterranean.  Attention 
was  also  called  to  regulations  touching  the  authority  ol 
consuls,  especially  those  of  France  under  the  consular 
convention ;  to  the  establishment  of  a  mint ;  to  a  uniform 
system  of  weights  and  measures ;  to  a  reorganization  of 
the  post-office  system,  and  a  uniform  rnilitia. 


EXCISE    GN    SPIRITS.  253 

There  would  be  needed,  accoiding  to  the  calculations  CHAPTER 

of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  principally  to  meet  the 

charges  growing  out  of  the  assumption  of  the  state  debts,  1790 
an  additional  annual  revenue  of  $826,000.      This  sum 
he  proposed  to  raise  by  an  increase  of  the  duties  on  im- 
ported spirits,  and  a  tax  by  way  of  excise  on  those  pro- 
duced at  home.      This  measure  of  an  excise,  notwith- 
standing the  repugnance  to  it  exhibited  at  both  the  pre- 
vious sessions,  was  pressed  in  a  very  elaborate  report. 
The  plan   proposed  would   be  free  from   the    objections 
principally  urged  to  taxes  by  excise.      No  summary  ju- 
risdiction would  be  vested  in  the  excise  officers,  nor  any 
authority  of  searching  and  visiting  without  special  war- 
rant, except  the  places  specially  designated  by  the  deal- 
ers and  manufacturers  themselves  as  depositaries  of  spir- 
its.    The  practicability  of  the  collection  had  been  already 
demonstrated,  a  similar  duty  on  spirits  having  been  here- 
tofore imposed  by  the  states  of  Pennsylvania,  Massachu- 
setts, and  Connecticut,  and  even  a  general  excise  by  the 
latter  state  upon  the  consumption  of  all  foreign  articles. 
As  to  the  expense  of  the  collection,  which  was  much 
objected  to,  the  secretary  considered  the  machinery  ne- 
cessary for  the  collection  of  the  domestic  duty  essential 
to  secure  the  due  payment  of  the  foreign  impost.      There 
were  but  two  systems  for  the  collection  of  taxes — reli- 
ance on  the  integrity  of  the  individuals  to  be  taxed,  the 
system  hitherto  chiefly  followed  in  the  collection  of  state 
taxes,  and  reliance  upon  the  vigilance  of  public  officers. 
It  was  this  latter  method  which  he  proposed  to  adopt. 
The  other  method  held  out  too  great  a  temptation  to 
false  swearing,  resulting  in  great  frauds  on  the  revenue, 
the  temptation  of  interest  being  too  powerful  for  men  in 
general  to  resist. 

Duties  on   the  great  mass  of  imported  articles  had 


254  H1STOHY  Of-    THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  been  carried  to   a  point  which  it  was  not  desirable  to 

HI. 

exceed,  and  which  could  not  be  exceeded  without  going 

1790.  counter  to  the  sense  of  the  great  body  of  the  merchants. 
Considering  their  general  attachment  to  the  federal  sys- 
tem, their  ready  co-operation  in  the  enforcement  of  the 
revenue  laws,  their  cheerful  submission  to  th*e  additional 
duties  imposed  at  the  last  session,  and  the  extent  of  the 
innovation  already  made  on  the  former  system  of  contri- 
butions, their  opinion,  though  not  decisive  on  the  sub- 
ject, the  secretary  considered  to  be  entitled  to  respect. 
Nor  would  it  be  wise  to  give  occasion  for  supposing  that 
trade  was  to  bear  the  whole  weight  of  federal  taxation. 

Direct  taxes  were  not  only  difficult  of  collection,  but 
it  was  desirable  to  reserve  them  for  cases  directly  in- 
volving  the  public  safety,  and  interesting,  therefore,  to  the 
whole  community.  The  only  alternative  seemed,  there- 
fore, to  be  a  tax  on  internal  consumption  ;  and  surely,  of 
all  articles  consumed,  none  were  fitter  to  be  taxed  than 
spirits,  whether  foreign  or  domestic.  Indeed,  the  policy 
of  this  tax,  as  regarded  the  health  and  morals  of  the 
community,  was  supported  by  a  memorial  from  the  Phil- 
adelphia College  of  Physicians. 

1791.  A  bill  in  close  conformity  to  the  secretary's  plan  was 
an'    '   very  warmly  opposed  by  the  voluble  Jackson,  who  did  not 

wish  to  subject  the  trade  between  Georgia  and  the  West 
Indies  to  any  further  burdens ;  by  Parker  of  Virginia ; 
by  Stone  of  Maryland ;  and  with  great  earnestness  by 
Steele  and  Bloodgood  of  North  Carolina.  According  to 
Steele,  the  consumption  of  spirits  was  so  great  in  North 
Carolina,  that  the  amount  of  tax  thus  made  to  fall  upon 
his  constituents  would  be  ten  times  as  great  as  in  the 
case  of  Connecticut.  Livermore,  on  the  other  hand,  sus- 
tained the  bill,  as  proposing  a  mode  of  taxation  not  only 
equal  and  jnst,  but  cne  likely  to  be  agreeable  to  the  peo« 


EXCISE    ON    SPIRITS.  255 

pie,  who  would  consider  it  a  drinking  down,  as  it  were,  CHAPTER 

of  the  national  debt.      The  bill  was  also  supported  by 

Madison.  As  money  must  be  had.  he  saw  no  better  1791. 
means  of  raising  it.  The  opposition  to  the  bill  was 
strengthened  by  a  series  of  resolutions  against  it,  passed 
by  the  Pennsylvania  Legislature,  then  in  session  at  Phil- 
adelphia. But,  after  a  series  of  warm  debates,  it  was 
carried  through  the  House  by  a  vote  of  thirty-five  to 
twTenty-one.  As  finally  passed,  the  act  imposed  upon 
all  imported  spirits  a  duty  varying  from  twenty  to  forty 
cents  per  gallon,  according  to  strength — a  great  advance 
upon  the  first  timid  tariff,  but  not  half  the  amount  which 
has  since  been  levied.  The  excise  to  be  collected  on 
domestic  spirits  varied  with  their  strength,  from  nine  to 
twenty-five  cents  per  gallon  on  those  distilled  from  grain, 
and  from  eleven  to  thirty  cents  when  the  material  was 
molasses  or  other  imported  product ;  thus  allowing,  espe- 
cially when  the  duty  on  molasses  was  taken  into  account, 
a  considerable  discrimination  in  favor  of  the  exclusively 
home  product. 

For  the  collection  of  these  duties,  each  state  was  made 
an  inspection  district,  with  its  Supervisor ;  each  district 
to  be  subdivided,  as  might  be  necessary,  into  Surveys 
of  Inspection,  each  with  its  Inspector.  As  many  Offices 
of  Inspection  as  might  be  found  convenient  were  to  be 
established  in  each  district,  to  have  the  control  of  the 
landing  of  all  imported  spirits,  and,  in  the  case  of  domes- 
tic spirits,  the  ascertainment  of  the  quantity  and  quali- 
ty, as  well  as  the  collection  of  the  duties.  All  distillers 
were  required  to  enter  their  distilleries  at  the  nearest 
office  of  inspection,  with  a  complete  description  of  all  the 
buildings,  which  buildings  were  to  be  subject  to  the  con- 
stant examination  of  an  inspector  appointed  for  that  pur- 
pose, who  was  to  gauge  and  brand  the  casks,  the  duties 


256  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER,  to  be  paid  before  the  removal  of  the  spirits  from  the  dis 
tillery.  But,  to  save  the  expense  and  the  trouble  to 
1791.  both  parties  of  this  constant  oversight,  the  small  country 
stills  not  situate  in  any  town  or  village  were  to  pay  an 
annual  rate  of  sixty  cents  per  gallon  on  the  capacity  of 
the  still.  All  casks  containing  spirits,  not  properly 
branded  and  certified,  were  liable  to  forfeiture.  On  the 
exportation  of  domestic  spirits,  a  drawback  was  allowed 
equivalent  to  the  excise,  except  a  deduction  of  half  a  cent 
per  gallon,  with  an  additional  drawback  of  the  molasses 
duty  in  case  of  spirits  distilled  from  that  material. 

The  resolutions  of  the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania 
against  this  tax  being  echoed  in  North  Carolina,  Vir- 
ginia, and  Maryland,  no  doubt  became  one  principal 
cause  of  the  opposition  encountered  in  its  collection.  In 
these  four  states  the  small  private  distilleries  were  very 
numerous,  amounting,  it  was  said,  in  Pennsylvania  alone, 
to  not  less  than  five  thousand. 

While  the  House  had  been  employed  on  the  excise, 
another  proposition  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  for 
a  national  bank  had  been  under  consideration  in  the  Sen- 
ate. In  his  report  on  this  subject,  Hamilton  had  urged 
in  favor  of  such  an  institution  the  facilities  which  banks 
afforded  to  trade,  and  the  benefits  to  be  expected  in  a 
commercial  point  of  view.  But  what  he  chiefly  dwelt 
upon  was  the  convenience  to  the  government  of  a  paper 
medium  in  which  to  conduct  its  monetary  transactions, 
and  of  a  resource  for  such  temporary  loans  as  might 
from  time  to  time  be  required. 

Duly  to  estimate  the  force  of  these  reasons,  it  is  nec- 
essary to  understand  the  precise  monetary  position  of  the 
United  States  at  the  moment  they  were  offered,  and  what 
had  been  hitherto  the  experience  of  the  country  on  that 
subject.  From  the  first  commencement  of  the  North 


NATIONAL   BANK.  257 

American  settlements,  as  they  were  always  in  debt  to  CHAPTER 
the  mother  country,  there  had  been  a  constant  tendency  ' 
in  such  coin  as  might  reach  them  to  flow  toward  En- 
gland.  Hence,  for  the  convenience  of  domestic  trade,  it 
had  been  found  necessary  to  establish  some  additional 
local  currency.  In  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  North  Car- 
olina, tobacco,  the  chief  exportable  product,  long  served 
for  that  purpose ;  in  New  England,  corn  and  cattle,  at 
certain  rates,  fixed  from  time  to  time,  were  the  estab- 
lished medium  for  the  payment  of  taxes  and  the  dis- 
charge of  colonial  contracts.  The  first  innovation  upon 
this  primitive  system  was  made  in  Massachusetts,  in 
1690,  by  the  issue  of  government  bills  or  treasury  notes, 
receivable  in  payment  of  taxes ;  and  afterward,  to  give 
them  a  greater  currency  and  value,  made  a  legal  tender 
in  payment  of  debts.  This  expedient  had  been  resorted 
to  at  first,  and  was  imitated  in  the  other  New  England 
colonies,  in  the  adjoining  province  of  New  York,  and 
soon  after  in  the  Carolinas,  not  with  any  design  to  fur- 
nish a  currency,  but  as  a  convenient,  and,  indeed,  neces- 
sary means  of  anticipating  the  taxes  during  the  first  two 
intercolonial  wars,  from  1689  to  1714.  Such,  how- 
ever, was  found,  or  thought  to  be,  the  convenience  of 
these  bills,  merely  as  a  medium  of  trade,  that  a  scheme 
had  been  hit  upon  for  continuing  their  issue  even  during 
peace,  and  with  the  professed  object  of  furnishing  at  once 
a  currency  for  the  people,  a  revenue  to  the  government, 
and  a  source  whence  capital  might  be  borrowed  by  the 
enterprising.  This  scheme,  first  introduced  in  South 
Carolina,  but  speedily  imitated  in  Massachusetts,  had 
consisted  in  the  issue  of  colony  bills,  to  be  let  out  OA  in- 
terest to  such  as  could  give  the  required  security,  the 
interest  to  furnish  a  revenue  to  the  state,  and  to  serve, 
so  far,  as  a  relief  from  taxation.  This  loan-office  sys- 
TV.— E 


258  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  tern,  as  it  was  called,  had  been  subsequently  introduced 

into  the  other  New  England  states,  also  into  Pennsyl- 

1791  vam'aj  New  Jersey,  and  Maryland ;  and  in  these  three  lat- 
ter states  had  continued  to  be  kept  up  down  even  to  the 
Revolution.  But  both  these  methods  of  issue,  whether 
by  way  of  loan  or  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  government, 
were  found  liable  to  great  abuses,  quite  fatal  to  the  pa- 
per as  a  measure  of  value.  There  was  a  constant  tend- 
ency to  over-issue,  whence  resulted  a  corresponding  de- 
preciation. Yet  this  very  fault  of  the  system  was  what 
chiefly  served  to  recommend  it  to  many — a  prof  use  issue 
of  paper  operating,  in  fact,  as  a  general  insolvent  law, 
all  debtors  being  thereby  enabled  to  discharge  their  debts 
at  a  half,  a  third,  a  quarter,  sometimes  a  tenth  or  twelfth 
part  of  the  amount  actually  due. 

After  an  ample  experience  of  these  bills  of  credit  in 
every  form  of  issue  and  in  all  their  methods  of  opera- 
tion, Massachusetts,  on  the  termination  of  the  third  in- 
tercolonial war  in  1748,  had  concluded  to  abandon  the 
paper  system  altogether,  the  indemnity  allowed  her  by 
the  British  Parliament  for  her  expenses  in  the  capture 
of  Louisburg  furnishing  her  the  means  to  redeem  her 
outstanding  bills  at  the  current  rate  of  about  twelve  for 
one.  To  compel  the  other  New  England  colonies  to  im- 
itate her  example,  or,  at  least,  to  restrict  their  issues 
within  narrow  limits,  the  passage  of  an  act  of  Parlia- 
ment was  procured,  by  which  they  were  prohibited  to 
issue  any  bills,  except  from  year  to  year,  in  anticipation 
of  taxes  previously  laid  ;  nor  could  even  these  be  made 
a  legal  tender. 

The  breaking  out  of  the  war,  which  resulted  in  the 
conquest  of  Canada,  and  the  heavy  expenses  which  all 
the  colonies  were  obliged  to  incur,  led  in  all  of  them, 
Massachusetts  only  excepted,  to  new  and  profuse  issues 


NATIONAL    BANK.  259 

of  bills  of  credit.      Virginia,  then  for  the  first  time  in-  CHAPTER 

volved  in  serious  expenses,  resorted  at  last  to  paper  money -<• 

issues,  by  which  the  use  of  tobacco  as  a  currency  seems  1791 
soon  to  have  been  in  a  great  measure  superseded,   as 
it  already  had  been  in  North  Carolina  and  Maryland. 

The  colonial  paper  money  had  long  been  a  subject  of 
complaint  on  the  part  of  the  British  merchants ;  and, 
soon  after  the  Canadian  war  had  been  brought  to  a  con- 
clusion, they  had  obtained  an  act  of  Parliament,  by  which 
the  provisions  of  the  New  England  Restraining  Act  were 
extended  to  all  the  colonies.  From  that  restraint  the 
Revolution  set  them  free  ;  and,  to  raise  means  for  the 
struggle,  the  paper  money  system  had  been  pushed  to  an 
extent  before  quite  unknown.  Such  was  the  excess  of 
issues,  that  within  six  years  the  paper  money,  both  state 
and  national,  lost  all  its  credit  and  ceased  to  circulate. 
Yet  the  downfall  of  this  paper  had  been  by  no  means  fol- 
lowed by  a  healthy  state  of  the  currency.  Apart  from 
the  interruption  of  commerce  by  the  war,  the  country 
was  altogether  too  poor  and  exhausted  to  supply  itself 
with  specie  from  abroad  ;  and  the  loans  obtained  from 
France,  and  the  sums  sent  over  for  the  expenses  of  the 
French  auxiliary  army,  went  but  a  little  way  toward 
filling  the  gap.  The  Continental  bills  were,  in  fact,  suc- 
ceeded by  Continental  certificates  for  supplies,  army  pay, 
&c.,  and  these,  with  the  certificates  of  the  state  and  feder- 
al debt,  the  whole  greatly  depreciated,  had  served,  though 
but  poorly,  the  purpose  of  a  currency.  Some  of  the 
states  subsequently  to  the  peace  had  even  resumed  the 
issue  of  paper  money ;  but  to  this  a  stop  had  been  put 
by  the  new  Constitution. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  monetary  confusion,  the  rudi- 
ments of  a  better  system  had  appeared.  Simultaneously 
with  the  introduction  into  America,  near  a  hundred  years 


260  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  before,  of  the  currency  of  bills  of  credit,  the  Bank  of 
'  .  England  had  introduced  into  that  country  the  issue  of 
1791.  bank-notes,  payable  in  cash  on  presentation.  This  idea 
of  a  redeemable  currency  was  carried  into  effect,  for  the 
first  time  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  by  the  Bank  of 
North  America,  established  by  Robert  Morris  just  at  the 
close  of  the  late  war,  chiefly  as  an  assistance  to  him  in 
the  difficult  office  of  superintendent  of  the  Continental 
finances.  The  use  of  this  new  sort  of  bills,  added  to  the 
convenience  of  loans  to  the  merchants,  was  soon  found  so 
satisfactory,  that  banks  on  the  same  principle  had  since 
been  established  at  New  York  and  Boston.  These  three 
banks,  to  which  another  at  the  rising  city  of  Baltimore- 
was  just  about  to  be  added,  were  at  this  time  the  only 
ones  in  the  country,  and  their  circulation  was  confined 
to  the  cities  in  which  they  were  situated.  The  Bank 
of  North  America  had  originally  been  chartered  by  the 
Continental  Congress,  but  upon  some  doubts  as  to  tha 
authority  of  that  body,  a  charter  had  also  been  obtained 
from  the  State  of  Pennsylvania.  Its  connection  with 
the  Continental  treasury  seems  to  have  ceased  with  the 
retirement  of  Morris,  and  it  was  now  a  mere  state  insti- 
tution. 

No  national  mint  yet  existed ;  the  only  coinage  undei 
the  Continental  Congress  had  been  a  quantity  of  cents 
manufactured  by  contract.  The  Spanish  dollar,  always 
the  chief  circulating  coin  of  North  America,  had  been 
adopted  as  the  monetary  unit,  and,  by  a  section  of  the 
first  tariff  act,  the  value  of  other  coins  had  been  fixed  in 
relation  to  it,  those  coins  at  such  values  to  be  a  legal 
tender  in  the  payment  of  duties.  But  in  the  present 
scarcity  of  coin,  and  amid  the  various  substitutes  for 
money  employed  in  different  localities,  there  was  hardly 
such  a  thing  as  a  national  currency. 


NATIONAL   BANK.  261 

With  respect  to  the  facility  of  obtaining  occasional  CHAPTER 
temporary  loans  for  the  use  of  the  government,  the  three         ' 
existing  banks,  considering  their  implied  engagements  to 
their  ordinary  customers,  could  not  be  relied  upon  with 
much  certainty ;  and  still  less  could  the  aid  of  private 
lenders  be  expected  with  confidence. 

The  expediency  of  establishing  a  national  bank  was 
at  that  time  a  very  different  question  from  its  expedien- 
cy now.  It  was  a  great  object  at  that  time  to  provide, 
if  not  a  national  currency  of  coin,  which,  poor  as  the 
country  then  was,  seemed  quite  out  of  the  question,  at 
least  its  best  and  only  tolerable  substitute,  a  redeema- 
ble paper  currency.  It  was  also  very  desirable  to  ex- 
tend to  the  infancy  of  the  new  banking  system,  so  vastly 
superior  in  all  respects  to  the  old  system  of  government 
paper  money,  and  likely,  under  wise  management,  to  be 
so  beneficial  to  trade  and  industry,  that  aid  and  coun- 
tenance which  it  might  derive  from  a  connection,  mutu- 
ally advantageous,  with  the  national  government.  At 
present  the  government  does  not  need  the  special  aid  of 
banks ;  nor  does  the  banking  system  require  the  fostering 
support  of  the  government.  Indeed,  in  the  extension  to 
which  that  system  has  attained,  the  great  necessity  of 
the  times  seems  to  be  that  of  a  balance-wheel,  the  con- 
stant pressure  of  which  shall  keep  the  banks  always  in 
mind  of  their  liability  to  be  called  upon  for  instant  re- 
demption. Nor  does  it  appear  that  any  check  of  that 
sort  has  yet  been  hit  upon  superior  or  equal  to  the  steady, 
uniform,  and  necessary  operation  of  the  exclusive  use  of 
specie  in  the  transactions  of  the  government.  Nor  ought 
the  lesson  to  be  overlooked  taught  by  the  experience  of 
the  last  sixty  years ;  the  two  great  catastrophes  in  the 
history  of  our  banking  system — the  temporary  stoppages 
of  specie  payments — having  both  resulted  from  too  in- 


262  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  timate  a  connection  on  the  part  of  the  banks  with  the 
'      national  government;  in  the  one  case  as  rash  and  im- 

1791  P1>ovident  lenders,  in  the  other  case  as  borrowers  no  less 
rash  and  improvident. 

A  bill  for  the  charter  of  a  national  bank,  introduced 
into  the  Senate  by  a  committee  to  which  the  secreta- 
ry's report  had  been  referred,  and  corresponding  pre- 
cisely with  his  recommendations,  encountered  but  very 
little  opposition  in  that  body.  On  the  third  reading, 

Jan,  20.  the  yeas  and  nays  were  twice  called ;  once  on  a  motion 
to  limit  the  duration  of  the  charter  to  ten  years,  which 
failed,  six  to  sixteen ;  and  again  on  a  motion,  lost  also, 
five  to  eighteen,  to  strike  out  the  clause  restraining  Con- 
gress from  chartering  any  other  bank  during  the  contin- 
uance of  this.  Finally,  the  bill  passed  without  a  divi- 
sion. In  the  House,  it  was  suffered  to  pass  a  second 
reading,  the  usual  stage  of  discussion,  without  opposi- 
tion ;  but  on  the  questions  of  the  third  reading  and  the 
final  passage,  a  warm  debate  arose.  Jackson,  Richard 
Bland  Lee,  Giles,  and  Madison  spoke  against  the  bill ; 
for  it,  Lawrence,  Sherman,  Gerry,  Ames,  Vining,  and 
Sedgwick.  Jackson  and  Giles  attacked  the  whole  poli- 
cy of  the  banking  system,  which  they  seemed  to  think 
little  better  than  a  cunningly-devised  scheme  for  enrich- 
ing the  bankers  at  the  expense  of  the  public.  Madison 
confined  his  objections  to  the  want  of  power  in  Congress 
to  pass  such  a  bill.  There  was  no  direct  grant  of  any 
such  power,  nor  could  it  be  implied,  so  he  maintained, 
from  any  power  expressly  granted.  It  was  answered 
that  the  power  to  establish  a  bank  was  implied  in  the 
powers  to  collect  a  revenue  and  to  pay  the  debts  of  the 
United  States,  and  in  the  authority  expressly  granted  to 
make  all  laws  necessary  and  proper  for  carrying  those 
powers  into  execution.  The  terms  "  necessary  and  prop- 


NATIONAL    BANK.  263 

er,"  in  this  connection,  could  not  be  restricted  to  those  CHAPTEB 

means  only  without  which  the  effect  could  not  be  pro- 

duced,  but  must  be  understood  as  comprehending  all  1791. 
means  adapted  to,  and  commonly  employed  for,  the  pur- 
pose. A  bank  was  such  a  means,  in  reference  to  rev- 
enue transactions,  in  use  by  the  Continental  government 
previous  to  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  and  well 
known  to  the  people.  This  line  of  argument,  the  same 
adopted  long  afterward  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  being  based  on  an  assumed  state  of  facts 
liable  to  change,  it  would  seem  to  follow,  that  if  the  use 
of  a  bank  should  happen,  by  change  of  circumstances,  to 
become  inexpedient,  it  would,  at  the  same  time,  become 
unconstitutional.  So  far,  indeed,  as  sentiment  and  feel- 
ing go,  always  of  great  weight  in  political  affairs,  ques- 
tions of  constitutionality  and  expediency  are  always  in- 
timately connected.  When  the  expediency  of  a  certain 
course  of  policy  has  been  established,  arguments  in  favor 
of  its  constitutionality  will  not  be  wanting.  Hence,  too, 
the  opposite  practice,  already  commenced  by  Virginia, 
and  which  soon  came  to  be  common  to  all  parties,  of  de- 
nouncing as  unconstitutional  almost  every  measure  to 
which  opposition  was  made. 

The  bill  finally  passed  the  House  by  a  vote  of  thirty- 
nine  to  twenty  ;  but,  before  signing  it,  the  president  re- 
quired the  written  opinions  of  the  members  of  his  cabinet 
as  to  its  constitutionality.  Hamilton,  supported  by  Knox, 
was  strong  in  the  affirmative;  Jefferson  and  Randolph 
took  the  opposite  side— the  first  instance,  it  would  seem, 
of  an  important  difference  of  opinion  in  the  cabinet,  and 
forerunner  of  that  decided  breach  which  soon  followed. 

After  due  deliberation,  the  president  put  his  signature 
to  the  act.  Except  in  a  few  particulars  of  little  import- 
ance, it  conformed  to  the  plan  suggested  by  Hamilton, 


264  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  and  has  served  as  a  model,  not  only  for  the  second  Bank 
m. 

nf  the  United  States,  to  the  charter  of  which  Madison 

1791.  himself  afterward  placed  his  signature,  but  for  a  great 
number  of  state  banks  also ;  though  by  few,  if  by  any, 
of  these  state  charters  was  the  public  security  so  amply 
provided  for 

The  charter  was  limited  to  twenty  years,  for  which 
period  Congress  renounced  the  power  of  establishing  any 
other  bank.  The  capital  was  to  consist  of  25,000  shares 
of  $400  each,  amounting  in  the  whole  to  ten  millions  of 
dollars,  eight  millions  to  be  subscribed  by  individuals, 
the  other  two  millions  by  the  United  States.  Individual 
subscriptions  were  payable  in  four  installments,  one  at 
the  moment  of  subscription,  the  others  in  six,  twelve,  and 
eighteen  months,  one  fourth  in  gold  or  silver,  the  other 
three  fourths  in  stock  of  the  United  States,  the  six  per 
cents,  at  par,  the  three  per  cents,  at  half  that  value.  The 
United  States  were  to  pay  in  cash,  out  of  the  proceeds 
of  the  foreign  loans  hitherto  authorized,  but  they  were 
to  be  entitled  to  a  loan  from  the  bank  to  the  amount  of 
their  subscription,  applicable  to  the  original  objects  of  the 
foreign  loans,  and  reimbursable  in  ten  annual  payments. 
In  other  words,  while  the  individual  subscribers  were 
obliged  to  pay  up  within  eighteen  months,  the  United 
States  had  the  advantage  of  extending  their  payments 
through  a  period  of  ten  years. 

In  receiving  three  fourths  of  the  individual  subscrip- 
tions in  government  stocks,  there  were  several  objects  in 
view.  One  was  to  create  a  new  demand  for  those  stocks, 
and  so  to  bring  them  to  par,  which  very  soon  happened  ; 
another  was  to  give  the  bank  a  direct  interest  in  sus- 
taining the  credit  of  the  government ;  a  third  was  to 
provide  ample  security  for  the  circulation  and  deposit? 
of  the  bank,  inasmuch  as  six  millions  in  government 


NATIONAL    BANK.  265 

stocks  at  six  per  cent,  were  a  far  more  certain  reliance,  CHAPTER 

in. 
and  a  resource  more  instantaneously  available,  than  the _ 

same  amount  vested  in.  promissory  notes  and  bills  of  1791. 
exchange.  While  the  bank  would  do  business  on  a 
cash  capital  of  four  millions,  added  to  which  would  be 
the  amount  of  its  deposits  and  circulation,  the  depositors 
and  bill-holders  would  have  the  security  not  only  of  this 
extra  cash  capital,  but  of  an  additional  fund  of  six  mill- 
ions of  dollars  invested  in  government  securities.  In 
this  particular  the  new  bank  was  closely  modeled  after 
the  Bank  of  England,  the  greater  part  of  whose  capital 
has  always  been  invested  in  government  stocks.  And 
the  same  idea  has  been  substantially  acted  upon  in  the 
recent  free  banking  system  of  New  York,  by  which  a 
deposit  of  government  stocks  is  required  as  security  for 
the  amount  of  the  circulating  bills. 

The  affairs  of  the  bank,  whose  head-quarters  were  to  be 
at  Philadelphia,  were  to  be  managed  by  a  board  of  twen- 
ty-five directors,  chosen  annually  by  the  stockholders  by  a 
plurality  of  votes.  One  share  entitled  to  one  vote  ;  three 
shares  to  two  votes  ;  five  shares  to  three  votes  ;  ten  shares 
to  five  votes  ;  thirty  shares  to  ten  votes ;  sixty  shares  to 
fifteen  votes  ;  one  hundred  shares  to  twenty  votes,  with  a 
proportional  number  for  intervening  amounts.  For  ev- 
ery ton  shares  above  a  hundred  an  additional  vote  was 
allowed ;  but  no  single  individual  or  corporation  was  to 
be  entitled  to  more  than  thirty  votes.  Votes  by  proxy 
were  allowed,  but  only  in  case  of  residents  in  the  United 
States.  The  directors,  who  must  be  stockholders  and 
citizens,  were  to  choose  a  president  from  among  their 
own  number,  and,  including  the  president  or  his  special 
deputy,  seven  were  to  constitute  a  quorum  to  do  busi- 
ness. At  least  one  fourth  of  the  board,  exclusive  of  the 
president,  was  to  be  renewed  at  every  annual  election. 


266  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  The  whole  property  which  the  bank  could  hold,  capital 
'  included,  was  limited  to  fifteen  millions  of  dollars,  nor 
1791.  were  *ts  debts,  exclusive  of  deposits,  ever  to  exceed  ten 
millions.  Should  any  such  excess  occur,  the  directors 
under  whose  administration  it  happened  wrere  to  be  per- 
sonally liable  to  that  extent,  except  those  who  were  ab- 
sent, or  who,  if  present,  should  dissent  from  the  act  cre- 
ating- such  excess  of  debt,  and  should  give  immediate 
notice  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  to  a 
meeting  of  stockholders,  which  they  were  authorized  to 
call  for  that  purpose.  Meetings  of  stockholders  might 
also  be  called  at  any  time,  for  purposes  relative  to  the 
institution,  by  any  sixty  stockholders,  proprietors  to- 
gether of  not  less  than  two  hundred  shares,  by  giving 
ten  weeks'  notice  in  two  Philadelphia  newspapers  specify- 
ing the  object  of  the  meeting.  Statements  as  often  as 
once  a  week,  if  required,  were  to  be  rendered  by  the  di- 
rectors to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  of  the  amount 
of  capital,  debts  due  the  bank,  circulation,  deposits,  and 
cash  in  hand ;  and,  so  far  as  related  to  these  matters, 
the  secretary  was  authorized  to  inspect  the  books,  but 
not  the  accounts  of  private  individuals.  The  bills  or 
notes  of  the  bank,  payable  on  demand  in  gold  or  silver, 
were  made  receivable  in  all  payments  to  the  United 
States. 

The  bank  was  forbidden  to  hold  lands  or  buildings, 
except  such  as  might  be  necessary  for  its  own  accom- 
modation, or  which  might  come  into  its  hands  by  the 
foreclosure  of  mortgages,  or  be  conveyed  to  it  in  satis- 
faction of  debts  previously  contracted,  or  be  purchased 
at  sales  upon  judgments  for  debts  due  to  it.  All  dealing 
was  prohibited  in  goods  and  merchandise  of  any  descrip- 
tion beyond  the  sale  of  the  produce  of  its  lands,  or  of 
goods  pledged  to  secure  the  payment  of  money  and  not 


KENTUCKY.  267 

cfufy  redeemed.      The  bank  might  sell    but  could  not  CHAPTEH 

purchase,  the  stocks  of  the  United  States.      Its  general 

business  was  therefore  restricted  to  dealing  in  bills  of  1791. 
exchange  and  gold  and  silver.  The  interest  it  might 
take  was  limited  to  six  per  cent.  No  loan  could  be 
made  to  the  United  States  exceeding  $100,000,  nor  to 
any  particular  state  exceeding  $50,000,  nor  to  any  for- 
eign potentate  to  any  amount,  unless  specially  author- 
ized by  act  of  Congress.  The  directors  might  establish 
branches,  but  only  for  discount  and  deposit,  at  such 
places  within  the  United  States  as  they  might  see  fit, 
and  might  delegate  the  administration  of  those  branches 
as  they  should  think  proper.  Dividends  were  to  be 
made  half  yearly,  at  the  discretion  of  the  directors. 
Once  in  three  years  they  were  to  lay  before  the  stock- 
holders an  exact  statement  of  debts  over-due  for  a  period 
of  three  times  the  original  credit,  and  of  the  surplus  of 
profits,  if  any,  after  deducting  losses  and  dividends. 

While  these  two  great  measures  of  the  excise  and  the 
bank  were  still  under  consideration,  acts  had  passed  for 
admitting  two  new  states  into  the  Union,  Vermont  at 
once,  and  Kentucky  in  the  course  of  the  ensuing  year. 

In  the  last  days  of  the  Continental  Congress,  Ken- 
tucky had  applied  for  admission  into  the  confederacy, 
that  being  the  condition  on  which  Virginia,  after  some 
reluctant  struggles,  had  consented  to  her  organization  as 
an  independent  state.  That  application  had  been  re- 
ferred to  the  new  federal  government  about  to  be  organ- 
ized, a  delay  which  had  made  it  necessary  to  recommence 
proceedings  anew ;  for  the  Virginia  Assembly  had  fixed 
a  limitation  of  time,  which,  being  over-past,  drove  back 
the  separatists  to  the  original  starting-point.  On  a  new 
application  to  the  Virginia  Legislature,  a  new  act  had 
authorized  a  new  Convention,  being  the  third  held  upon 


HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  that  subject,  to  take  the  question  of  separating  into  con- 

' sideration.    But  this  act  had  imposed  some  new  terms 

1^91  not  at  all  agreeable  to  the  Kentuckians,  of  which  the 
principal  was  the  assumption  by  the  new  state  of  a  por- 
tion of  the  Virginia  debt,  on  the  ground  of  expenses  in- 
curred by  recent  expeditions  against  the  Indians.  The 

1789.  Convention  which  met  under  this  act  proceeded  no  fur- 
July-    ther  than  to  vote  a  memorial  to  the  Virginia  Legislature 

requesting  the  same  terms  formerly  offered.  That  re- 
quest was  granted,  and  a  fourth  Convention  was  author- 
ized again  to  consider  the  question  of  separation,  and 
should  that  measure  be  still  persisted  in,  to  fix  the  day 
when  it  should  take  place.  Having  met  during  the  last 

1790.  summer,  this  Convention  had  voted  unanimously  in  favor 
uly'    of  separation  ;   had  fixed  the  first  day  of  June,  1792,  as 

the  time  ;  and  had  authorized  the  meeting  of  a  fifth  Con- 
vention to  frame  a  state  Constitution.  In  anticipation 

1791.  of  these  results,  an  act  of  Congress  was  now  passed  ad- 
*  '  4"  mitting  Kentucky  into  the  Union  from  and  after  the  day 

above  mentioned,  not  only  without  any  inspection  of  the 
state  Constitution,  but  before  any  such  Constitution  had 
been  actually  formed. 

The  rapid  increase  of  the  population  of  Vermont  hav- 
ing destroyed  all  hope  on  the  part  of  New  York  of  re- 
establishing her  jurisdiction  over  that  rebellious  district, 
the  holders  of  the  New  York  grants,  seeing  no  better 
prospect  before  them,  were  ready  to  accept  such  an  in- 
demnity as  -might  be  obtained  by  negotiation.  Political 
considerations  had  also  operated.  The  vote  of  Vermont 
might  aid  to  establish  the  seat  of  the  federal  government 
at  New  York.  At  all  events,  that  state  would  serve  as 
a  counterbalance  to  Kentucky,  the  speedy  admission  of 
1789.  which  was  foreseen.  The  Assembly  of  New  York  had 
July<  appointed  commissioners  with  full  powers  to  acknowl- 


VERMONT. 

edge  the  independence  of  Vermont  and  to  arrange  a  CHAPTER 
settlement  of  all  matters  in  controversy.     To  this  ap-         ... 
pointment  Vermont  had  responded,  and  terms  had  been  1^91 
soon  arranged.     In  consideration  of  the  sum  of  $30,000, 
as  an  indemnity  to  the  New  York  grantees,  New  York 
renounced  all  claim  of  jurisdiction,  consented  to  the  ad-  1790. 
mission  of  Vermont  into  the  Union,  and  agreed  to  the  ( 
boundary  heretofore  claimed  —  the  western  line  of  the 
westernmost  townships  granted  by  New  Hampshire  and 
the  middle  channel  of  Lake  Champlain.     This  arrange- 
ment was  immediately  ratified  by  the  Legislature  of  Ver-  Oct.  28. 
mont.     A  Convention,  which  met  at  the  beginning  of  1791. 
the  year,  had  voted  unanimously  to  ratify  the  Federal  Jan- 19- 
Constitution,  and  to  ask  admission  into  the  Union.    Com- 
missioners were  soon  after  appointed  by  the  Assembly 
to  wait  upon  Congress  and  to  negotiate  the  admission, 
No  opposition  was  made  to  it,  and  within  fourteen  days  Feb.  18. 
after  the  passage  of  the  bill  for  the  prospective  admission 
of  Kentucky,  another  act  was  passed  for  admitting  Ver- 
mont into  the  Union,  from  and  after  the  termination  of 
the  present  session  of  Congress. 

The  Constitution  under  which  Vermont  came  into  the 
Union,  originally  adopted  in  1777,  had  been  slightly  al- 
tered in  1785.  Most  of  its  provisions  seem  to  have  been 
copied  from  the  first  Constitution  of  Pennsylvania,  with 
some  modifications  borrowed  from  Connecticut.  The 
right  of  suffrage  was  given  to  every,  man  twenty -one 
years  of  age,  of  quiet  and  peaceable  behavior,  and  a  resi- 
dent in  the  state  for  one  year  preceding  the  election. 
The  executive  power  was  vested  in  a  governor,  or,  in 
case  of  his  death  or  disability,  a  lieutenant  governor,  and 
twelve  counselors  annually  chosen,  the  counselors  by 
general  ticket.  The  legislative  power  was  vested  in  a 
single  Assembly,  of  which  the  members  were  annually 


270  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNI1ED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  elected  by  the  towns.     But  no  act  could  pass  until  it  had 

. ^ been  printed  for  the  consideration  of  the  people ;   nor  till 

1791,  it  had  been  laid  before  the  governor  and  council,  who  had 
the  right  to  suggest  amendments;  nor  (except  in  cases  of 
urgent  necessity)  without  laying  over  one  session — a  de- 
lay, by  the  revision  of  1785,  only  to  take  place  at  the 
will  of  the  governor  and  council,  in  case  of  the  non-adop- 
tion of  such  amendments  as  they  might  have  proposed. 
The  judicial  power  was  vested  in  a  Supreme  Court  of 
five  judges,  county  courts,  and  probate  courts  :  all  judges 
of  all  the  courts,  as  well  as  sheriffs  and  justices  of  the 
peace,  to  be  elected  annually  by  the  Assembly.  A  coun- 
cil of  censors,  of  thirteen  members,  was  to  be  chosen 
by  the  people  by  general  ticket  once  in  seven  years, 
to  inquire  if  the  Constitution  had  been  violated,  and  to 
suggest  amendments  to  it  for  the  consideration  of  a  con- 
vention, which  the  censors  were  entitled  to  call  by  a  two 
thirds  vote.  But  the  proposed  amendments  must  be  pub- 
lished six  months  beforehand,  for  the  consideration  of  the 
people. 

The  first  article  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  declared  that 
"  no  male  person  born  in  this  country,  or  brought  from 
over  sea,  ought  to  be  bound  by  law  to  serve  any  person 
as  a  servant,  slave,  or  apprentice  after  he  arrives  at  the 
age  of  twenty-one  years,  nor  female,  in  like  manner,  after 
she  arrives  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  unless  they 
are  bound  by  their  own  consent  after  they  arrive  at  such 
.  age,  or  are  bound  by  law  for  the  payment  of  debts,  dama- 
ges, fines,  costs,  or  the  like."  This  provision  was  con- 
tained in  the  Constitution  of  1777,  so  that  neither  to 
Massachusetts  nor  to  Pennsylvania,  but  to  the  backwoods- 
men of  Vermont,  the  honor  belongs  of  having  been  the 
first  American  state  to  abolish  and  prohibit  slavery. 
The  original  Bill  of  Rights  of  Vermont  afforded  curi- 


VERMONT.  271 

ous  instances,  like  so  many  other  American  Constitu-  CHAPTER 
tions,  of  contradictions  growing  out  of  an  attempted  com-  ' 
promise  between  the  new  spirit  of  religious  freedom  and 
the  old  spirit  of  religious  bigotry.  The  right  of  freedom 
of  worship,  according  to  the  dictate  of  every  man's  con- 
science and  understanding,  was  copiously  insisted  upon ; 
but  this  conscience  and  understanding  was  "  to  be  regu- 
lated by  the  Word  of  God ;"  nor  could  any  man  sit  as  a 
member  of  Assembly  who  did  not  sign  a  declaration  of 
his  belief  in  a  God,  the  Creator  and  Governor  of  the  uni- 
verse, the  rewarder  of  the  good  and  the  punisher  of  the 
wicked,  with  an  acknowledgment  of  the  scriptures  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments  as  given  by  inspiration,  and  a 
profession  of  his  Protestant  faith — tests  principally  cop- 
ied from  the  Constitution  of  Pennsylvania,  and  which  in 
either  state  would  have  excluded  from  the  Assembly 
a  very  distinguished  citizen,  Franklin  in  Pennsylvania, 
and  Ethan  Allen  in  Vermont.  While  declaring  it  un- 
just to  compel  any  man  to  attend  upon  any  religions 
worship  or  to  support  any  minister  contrary  to  the  dic- 
tates of  his  own  conscience,  it  was  yet  undertaken  so  far 
to  regulate  consciences  as  to  declare  "  that  every  sect  or 
denomination  of  people  ought  to  observe  the  Sabbath,  and 
keep  up  and  support  some  sort  of  religious  worship  which 
to  them  shall  seem  most  agreeable  to  the  revealed  will 
of  God."  The  revision  of  1785  struck  out  the  require- 
ment of  Protestantism;  another  revision  in  1793,  still 
following  the  example  of  Pennsylvania,  released  the 
members  of  Assembly,  from  the  necessity  of  any  relig- 
ious subscription. 

The  New  England  usage  of  schools  in  every  town, 
supported  at  the  public  expense,  was  made  a  constitu- 
tional provision,  and  the  establishment  was  recommended 
of  county  schools  and  a  university.  In  the  townships 


272  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES 

CHAPTER  originally  granted  by  the  governor  of  New  Hampshire 
rights  of  land  of  three  hundred  and  forty  acres  had 
1791.  been  reserved  for  the  use  of  schools,  and  others  for  the 
British  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in 
foreign  parts,  which  latter,  by  an  act  of  the  Legisla- 
ture of  1794,  were  also  appropriated  to  the  use  of 
schools.  In  the  townships  granted  by  the  State  of  Ver- 
mont, one  right  had  been  reserved  for  town  schools  and 
another  for  county  grammar  schools.  From  the  pro- 
ceeds of  these  lands  originated  the  Vermont  school  fund. 
The  "University  of  Vermont,  established  at  Burlington 
in  1791,  was  endowed  by  private  subscriptions  to  the 
amount  of  $33,333,  nearly  half  of  which  was  contrib- 
uted by  Ira  Allen,  a  younger  brother  of  Ethan  Allen, 
and,  like  him,  conspicuous  in  the  affairs  of  the  state,  of 
which  he  has  left  an  historical  sketch  not  without  value. 
The  Legislature  added  a  donation  of  land  amounting  to 
nearly  fifty  thousand  acres.  The  settlement  at  Burling- 
ton, and  generally  along  the  lake  shores,  had  only  com- 
menced since  the  peace. 

The  use  of  a  single  Legislative  Assembly,  originally  in- 
troduced by  Pennsylvania  and  Georgia,  had  been  already 
abandoned  by  those  two  states.  Vermont  persisted  in 
it  till  1836,  when  she  too  so  far  modified  her  Consti- 
tution as  to  adopt  a  senate  of  thirty  members  as  a  part 
of  her  Legislature,  dispensing  at  the  same  time  with  the 
Executive  Council.  A  provision  contained  in  the  first 
Constitution,  by  which  each  town,  irrespective  of  its  pop- 
ulation, was  to  have  one  representative  and  no  more,  still 
remains  in  force. 

The  news  of  the  repulse  of  Harmer,  and  of  the  in- 
creasing danger  from  the  Indians  on  the  northwestern 
frontier,  led  to  the  addition  to  the  standing  military  force 
of  a  second  regiment  of  infantry  of  nine  hundred  and 


APPROPRIATIONS.  -  273 

twelve  men.      By  the  same  act  the  president  was  au-  CHAPTKU 

thorized  to  appoint,  for  such   term  as   he  might  think 

proper,  a  major  general  and  a  brigadier  general,  and  to  1791 
call  into  service,  instead  of  or  in  addition  to  the  militia 
which  he  was  already  empowered  to  call  out,  a  corps  of 
two  thousand  six  months  levies,  and  a  body  of  mounted 
volunteers,  For  the  support  of  these  troops  the  sum 
of  $312,686  was  appropriated,  which  sum  the  president 
was  authorized  to  borrow,  in  case  the  revenue  not  other- 
wise appropriated  should  prove  insufficient  to  furnish  it. 
The  whole  of  the  appropriations  for  the  year  1791 
amounted  to  $1,205,371,  including  $100,000  for  the 
expenses  of  Harmer's  unfortunate  expedition,  $20,000 
to  obtain  from  the  new  emperor  of  Morocco  a  recognition 
of  the  treaty  formerly  made  with  his  father,  and  $48,000 
to  put  the  new  excise  system  in  operation.  To  these  ex- 
penses wero  to  be  added  interest  on  the  Continental  debt, 
which  now  became  payable,  to  the  amount  of  about 
$2,700,000,  exclusive  of  the  interest  on  the  assumed 
debt,  not  payable  till  the  next  year.  The  treasury,  at 
the  end  of  the  year  1790,  had  contained  a  surplus  of 
about  $1,000,000  ;  but  as  the  whole  of  that  surplus, 
under  an  act  of  the  previous  session,  had  gone  into  the 
hands  of  the  commissioners  for  the  reduction  of  the  pub- 
lic debt,  there  remained. for  the  current  expenses  of  the 
year,  about  $4,000,000,  no  resource  except  the  current 
income  and  temporary  loans. 

This  act  for  increasing  the  army  closed  the  labors  of 
the  first  Congress^a  body,  next  to  the  Convention  that 
framed  the  Constitution,  by  far  trie  most  illustrious  and 
remarkable  in  our  post-Revolutionary  annals.  On  com' 
ing  together  two  years  before,  the  new  Congress  had 
found  the  expiring  government  of  the  Confederation  with- 
out revenue,  without  credit,  without  authority,  influ- 
IV.— S 


274  -HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  ence,  or  respect  at  home  or  abroad ;  the  state  govern* 
'  merits  suffering  under  severe  pecuniary  embarrassments; 
1791.  and  a  large  portion  of  the  individuals  who  composed  the 
nation  overwhelmed  by  private  debts.  Commerce  and 
industry,  without  protection  from  foreign  competition, 
and  suffering  under  all  the  evils  of  a  depreciated  and 
uncertain  currency,  exposed,  also,  to  serious  embarrass- 
ments from  local  jealousies  and  rivalries,  were  but  slowly 
and  painfully  recovering  from  the  severe  dislocations  to 
which  first  the  war  of  the  Revolution  and  then  the  peace 
had  subjected  them.  Even  the  practicability  of  carrying 
the  new  Constitution  into  effect,  at  least  without  making 
the  remedy  worse  than  the  disease,  was  seriously  doubted 
and  stoutly  denied  by  a  powerful  party,  having  many  able 
men  among  its  leaders,  and,  numerically  considered,  in- 
cluding, perhaps,  a  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States. 

In  two  short  years  a  competent  revenue  had  been  pro- 
vided, the  duties  imposed  to  produce  it  operating  also  to 
give  to  American  producers  a  preference  in  the  home 
market,  and  to  secure  to  American  shipping  a  like  prefer- 
ence in  American  ports.  The  public  debt,  not  that  of 
the  Confederation  only,  but  the  great  bulk  of  the  state 
debts,  had  been  funded  and  the  interest  provided  for,  the 
public  credit  being  thus  raised  from  the  lowest  degrada- 
tion to  a  most  respectable  position.  The  very  funding 
of  this  debt,  and  the  consequent  steady  and  increasing 
value  thus  conferred  upon  it,  had  given  a  new  character 
to  the  currency,  composed  as  it  was,  in  a  great  measure, 
of  public  securities  ;  while  steps  had  been  taken  to  im- 
prove it  still  further  by  the  establishment  of  a  national 
bank.  A  national  judiciary  had  been  organized,  vested 
with  powers  to  guard  the  sanctity  of  contracts  against 
stop-laws,  tender  laws,  and  paper  money.  The  prao>;j- 


tfENEFITS    OF    THE    FUNDING    SYSTEM.          275 

cability  and  efficiency  of  the  new  system  had  been  as  CHAPTEI- 

fully  established   as  the   experience   of  only  two  years . 

would  admit,  and  the  nation  thereby  raised  to  a  respect-  179, 
able  position  in  its  own  eyes  and  in  those  of  foreign  coun- 
tries. 

The  Senate  had  unwisely  imitated  the  reserve  of  the 
Continental  Congress — a  reserve  necessary  in  time  of 
war,  but  contrary  to  the  democratic  spirit  of  American 
institutions — in  transacting  their  business  with  closed 
doors.  But  the  House  of  Representatives,  by  opening 
theii  doors  to  reporters  and  the  public,  had  admitted  the 
people,  notwithstanding  all  the  alarm  that  had  been  ex- 
pressed as  to  the  monarchical  and  aristocratical  tenden- 
cies of  the  new  government,  to  a  knowledge  of  na- 
tional affairs  such  as  they  had  never  before  enjoyed. 
By  the  newspaper  reports,  disseminated  through  the 
Union,  the  proceedings  of  the  House  became,  in  fact 
better  known  to  the  people  than  the  doings  of  their  own 
state  Legislatures.  These  reports  were  very  brief,  com- 
pared with  what  we  have  now,  yet  sufficient  to  give  a 
pretty  accurate  idea  of  the  course  of  business  in  the 
House. 

The  funding  of  the  public  debt,  however  in  particular 
instances  it  might  have  redounded  to  the  enrichment  of 
cunning  and  sordid  speculators,  or  however  deserving 
sufferers  by  former  public  insolvency  might  have  been 
overlooked,  yet  in  its  general  operation  promoted,  to  a 
great,  and,  indeed,  unexpected  degree,  the  public  prosper- 
ity. By  furnishing  a  capital  almost  or  quite  as  avail- 
able as  cash,  of  which  enterprise  knew  how  to  take  ad- 
vantage, and  by  the  new  and  powerful  impulse  thus 
given  to  industry,  it  went  far  toward  relieving  that  pri- 
vate pecuniary  embarrassment  which  had  constituted  one 
of  the,  greatest  evils  of  the  times.  The  newly  fundec 


276  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    6TATFS, 

CHAPTER  stocks  had  all  the  advantages  of  the  old  paper  money 

. issues,  without  any  of  their  dangers,  and  with  the  ad- 

1791.  ditional  advantage  of  having  a  value  abroad  as  well  aa 
at  home — the  sale  of  stocks  abroad,  urged  as  one  of  the 
great  objections  to  the  funding  system,  being,  in  fact, 
one  of  its  chief  recommendations — the  holders  being  thus 
enabled  to  convert  these  paper  obligations  into  actua*  cash. 
The  great  secret  of  the  beneficial  operation  of  the  fund- 
ing system  was  the  re-establishment  of  confidence;  for 
commercial  confidence,  though  political  economists  may 
have  omitted  to  enumerate  it  among  the  elements  of 
production,  is  just  as  much  one  of  those  elements  as  la- 
bor, land,  or  capital — ^a  due  infusion  of  it  increasing  in 
a  most  remarkable  degree  the  productive  activity  of  those 
other  elements,  and  the  want  of  it  paralyzing  their  power 
to  a  corresponding  extent.  By  the  restoration  of  con- 
fidence in  the  nation,  confidence  in  the  states,  and  con* 
fidence  in  individuals,  the  funding  system  actually  add- 
ed to  the  labor,  land,  and  capital  of  the  country  a  much 
greater  value  than  the  amount  of  the  debt  thereby  charged 
upon  them.  Commerce  and  industry,  thus  buoyed  up, 
had  taken  a  great  start.  Favorable  seasons,  the  atten- 
tion given  of  late  to  domestic  manufactures,  the  natural 
reaction  from  a  period  of  embarrassment  and  depression, 
concurred  with  the  revival  of  confidence,  and  the  new 
arrangements  in  favor  of  trade  and  industry,  to  produce 
a  sudden  influx  of  prosperity.  The  exports  rose  at  once 
to  twenty  millions  a  year,  and  shipping  was  increased 
so  rapidly  as  already  to  have  solved  the  doubt  whether 
America  could  supply  vessels  enough  to  transport  her 
own  productions.  To  the  profitable  trade  recently  opened 
with  India  and  China  had  been  added  another  lucrative 
traffic  to  the  northwest  coast  of  America,  a  region  then 
almost  unknown,  now  so  familiar  as  California  and  Oie* 


COLUMBIA   RIVER    EXPLORED.  277 

gon.      Between  this  trade  and  that  to  China  there  was  CHAPTER 
h                                                                                                         in. 
a  close  connection,  the  great  attraction  to  this  coast  be- 

ing  the  rich  furs  of  the  sea  otter,  purchased  for  trinkets  1791. 
and  sold  in  China  at  an  immense  profit.      The  ship  Co- 
lumbia, Captain  Gray,  of  Boston,  one  of  the  pioneers  in 
this  traffic,  after  exploring  with  her  consort,  the  sloop 
Washington,  the  coast  north  and  south  of  Nootka  Sound, 
had  returned  home  by  the  way  of  Canton  and  the  Cape  1790, 
of  Good  Hope,  thus  completing  the  first  American  voy- 
age round  the  world.      Already  on  almost  every  sea  the 
stripes  and  stars  began  to  wave.      In  a  second  voyage 
Captain  Gray  entered  for  the  first  time  the  mouth  of  the  1792, 
Columbia  or  Oregon  River,  an  exploration  relied  upon  by       av 
the  United  States,  in  their  controversy  with  Great  Brit- 
ain many  years  afterward  as  to  the  ownership  of  that  re- 
gion, as  affording  a  claim  of  title  by  discovery. 


278  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


CHAPTER    IV. 

INDIAN  WAR  IN  THE  WEST.  FIRST  SESSION  OF  THE  SEU  / 
OND  CONGRESS.  STATE  OF  PARTIES.  JEFFERSON,  AD 
AMS,  AND  HAMILTON.  FIRST  CENSUS.  NEW  APPORTION. 
MENT  OF  REPRESENTATIVES.  THIRD  TARIFF.  MILITIA 
POST-OFFICE.  MINT.  JUDICIAL  PROCEDURE.  REVOLU- 
TIONARY  CLAIMS.  ELECTORS  OF  PRESIDENT.  CONSTITU- 
TIONS OF  KENTUCKY,  DELAWARE,  AND  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

CHAPTER  J^HORTLY  after  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  Wash- 
.  ington    started    on    a   three  months'  tour  through  the 

1791.  Southern  States.  If  not  received  with  quite  the  same 
high-wrought  enthusiasm  which  had  marked  his  journey 
through  New  England,  he  was  yet  every  where  enter- 
tained with  cordiality  and  respect.  Many  measures  of 
the  government  had  encountered  a  warm  resistance  from 
the  Southern  members  of  Congress.  Opposition  to  the 
Federal  Constitution,  which  had  prevailed  so  extensive- 
ly in  that  region,  had  gradually  taken  on  the  character 
of  opposition  to  the  policy  of  the  administration.  Yet 
Washington  found  occasion  to  observe  many  proofs  of 
the  favorable  impression  on  the  public  mind  made  by  the 
working  of  the  new  system. 

In  the  course  of  his  journey  he  stopped  for  several 
days  on  the  Potomac,  taking  that  opportunity  to  exercise 
the  authority  vested  in  him  of  definitively  selecting  the 
site  of  the  future  seat  of  government.  That  selection 
made,  the  commissioners  entered  forthwith  upon  theii 
duty.  The  city  was  laid  out  on  a  most  magnificent 
scale,  on  a  plot  large  enough  to  accommodate  a  million 


ARRIVAL    OF    A    BRITISH    MINISTER.  2  7  <J 

of  inhabitants.      Many  persons  from  different  parts  of  CHAPTER 

the  Union  entered  with  great  zeal  into  the  speculation 

for  building  it  up,  to  most  of  whom,  however,  the  enter-  1791, 
prise  proved  sufficiently  disastrous.  The  owners  of  the 
land,  confident  of  growing  rich  by  the  enhancement  of 
its  value,  transferred  to  the  United  States  not  only  the 
ground  necessary  for  streets,  and  the  spaces  reserved  for 
public  purposes,  but  one  half  the  lots  into  which  the 
city  plot  was  laid  out,  the  proceeds  to  be  applied  toward 
the  completion  of  the  public  buildings. 

Of  all  the  speculations  of  the  day,  and  they  were  nu- 
merous, none  met  with  greater  favor  than  the  new  na- 
tional bank.  Within  a  few  hours  after  opening  the 
books,  the  whole  amount  of  the  stock  was  subscribed,  July, 
with  a  surplus.  In  addition  to  the  mother  bank,  for 
whose  use  near  half  the  capital  was  reserved,  branches 
were  established  in  the  principal  commercial  towns  of 
the  Union,  thus  affording  to  the  government,  at  the  points 
where  the  revenue  was  principally  collected,  convenient 
and  secure  places  of  deposit,  and  greatly  facilitating  trans- 
fers from  one  point  to  another. 

The  strength  and  dignity  added  to  the  American  gov- 
ernment under  its  new  organization  was  not  without  its 
effect  on  foreign  nations.  Great  Britain  at  last  conde- 
scended to  appoint  a  minister  in  the  person  of  George 
Hammond,  who  delivered  his  letters  of  credence  not  long  Ars 
after  Washington's  return,  and  with  whom  Jefferson,  as 
Secretary  of  State,  presently  entered  into  an  elaborate 
correspondence  on  the  unsettled  questions  between  the 
two  governments — the  slaves  carried  off  by  the  departing 
British  troops,  the  detention  of  the  Western  posts,  and  the 
disputed  Eastern  boundary  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on 
the  other,  the  stipulations  in  favor  of  British  creditors, 
and  American  adherents  to  the  British  cause. 


280  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER       A  new  minister  was  also  received  from  France,  the 

IV. 

Count  de  Moustier  being  superseded  by  M.  de  Ternant, 

1791.  one  of  whose  first  applications  was  to  request  a  supply 
of  money,  arms,  and  ammunition  for  the  relief  of  the 
unfortunate  island  of  St.  Domingo.  The  political  enthu- 
siasm then  prevailing  in  the  mother  country,  added  to 
the  vacillating  and  conflicting  decrees  of  the  French  Na- 
tional Assembly  on  the  subject  of  citizenship,  had  given 
rise  in  that  island  to  a  warm  controversy,  not  without 
bloodshed,  as  to  the  political  rights  of  the  free  mulat- 
toes,  a  class  quite  considerable  in  point  of  numbers,  and 
containing  some  persons  not  without  property  and  edu- 
cation. Nor  was  this  claim  of  equal  rights  long  con- 
fined to  the  mulattoes  alone.  The  slaves  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Cape  Fran9ais,  the  northern  district  of  the 
island,  ten  times  more  numerous  than  the  whites  and 
mulattoes  united,  had  suddenly  risen  in  insurrection^  de- 
stroying all  the  sugar  plantations  in  the  fertile  plain  of 
the  cape,  and  threatening  the  city  itself  with  destruc- 
tion. Fugitives  from  this  scene  of  desolation  already 
began  to  arrive  in  the  United  States.  The  supplies 
Sept.  asked  for  by  Ternant  toward  the  suppression  of  this  re- 
bellion were  readily  granted,  in  expectation  of  a  reim- 
bursement out  of  the  sums  due  to  France. 

Thomas  Pinckney,  of  South  Carolina,  was  presently 
Dec.  appointed  minister  to  England.  Gouverneur  Morris  was 
commissioned  at  the  same  time  as  minister  to  France. 
Short,  who  had  acted  as  charge  des  affaires  at  that  court, 
was  sent  to  Holland  as  resident  minister,  and  appointed 
also,  about  the  same  time,  joint  commissioner  with  Car- 
michael  to  negotiate  with  Spain  respecting  the  naviga- 
tion of  the  Mississippi.  Early  in  the  year  Humphreys 
had  been  commissioned  as  resident  minister  at  the  court 
of  Portugal,  and  Barclay  as  consul  to  Morocco,  to  obtain 


INDIAN    WAR   IN    THE    WEST. 

a  lecognition  from  the  new  emperor  of  the  treaty  formerly  CHAPTER 

negotiated  with  his  father.       A  confidential  agent  had 

also  been  sent  to  Florida,  to  negotiate  with  the  Spanish  1791 
governor  on  the  subject  of  fugitive  slaves. 

To  the  generally  promising  state  of  affairs  there  was 
one  serious  drawback.  The  unsettled  condition  of  In- 
dian relations  on  the  Western  frontier  had  been  not  a 
little  aggravated  by  Harmers  repulse,  and  by  events  of 
subsequent  occurrence.  Immediately  after  the  passage 
of  the  act  for  increasing  the  army,  St.  Clair,  governor  of 
the  Northwestern  Territory,  had  been  commissioned  as 
major  general,  and  steps  had  been  taken  for  raising  the 
new  regiment  and  the  levies,  the  command  of  which  was 
given  to  General  Butler.  As  some  delay  would  occur 
before  these  new  troops  could  be  ready,  an  expedition 
was  organized  in  the  mean  time,  consisting  of  five  hund- 
red mounted  volunteers  from  Kentucky,  led  by  General 
Scott.  Having  crossed  the  Ohio  near  the  mouth  of  the  May  iv 
Kentucky  River,  Scott  proceeded  northwardly  through 
the  wilderness,  and  crossing  on  his  march  the  branches 
of  the  White  River,  reached  at  length  the  villages  on  the  June  l 
Wabash.  Fifty-eight  prisoners  were  taken,  and  several 
warriors  were  killed,  but  the  greater  part  of  the  Indians 
succeeded  in  escaping.  A  detachment  under  Wilkinson, 
who  was  second  in  command,  was  sent  against  the  Kicka- 
poo  village,  eighteen  miles  distant ;  but  there,  too,  most 
of  the  inhabitants  escaped.  The  village,  consisting  of 
about  seventy  houses,  was  burned,  and  with  it  a  quantity 
of  corn,  peltry,  and  other  goods.  Many  of  the  houses, 
which  were  well  finished,  seemed  to  be  inhabited  by 
Frenchmen,  and  the  books  and  papers  found  in  them  evi- 
dently showed  a  close  connection  with  Detroit. 

While  preparations  were  making  to  subdue  the  In- 
dians by  force,  negotiation  was  not  neglected.      Corn- 


282  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  planter,  a  friendly  chief  of  the  Senecas,  who  had  visited 
Philadelphia  during  the  winter,  undertook  to  act  as  a 
1791.  mediator  with  the  hostile  tribes.  But  this  project  en- 
countered many  obstacles  on  the  part  of  Brant  and  Red 
Jacket,  two  other  leading  chiefs  of  the  Six  Nations,  who, 
though  pretending  to  be  friendly,  were  believed  to  be 
acting  under  British  influence.  The  British  commander 
at  Fort  Erie,  unwilling,  apparently,  that  peace  should 
be  made  except  by  British  interference,  would  not  allow 
the  charter  of  a  schooner  in  which  to  proceed  to  San- 
dusky  to  open  a  communication  with  the  hostile  tribes; 
and  so  Cornplanter's  mediation  became  unavailable. 
There  was,  indeed,  reason  to  fear  that  even  the  Senecas 
themselves  might  be  led  to  take  part  in  the  pending  hos- 
tilities. Already  they  repented  of  the  vast  cessions  made 
to  Phelps  and  other  purchasers  of  pre-emption  rights  un- 
der Massachusetts,  upon  which  settlements  were  begin- 
ning to  be  formed.  Attempts  by  Morris  and  Ogden  to 
obtain  additional  cessions  aggravated  these  discontents  ; 
and  uneasiness  was  still  further  increased  by  the  leases 
which  they  had  been  induced  to  make  of  parts  of  their 
reservations.  Timothy  Pickering,  appointed  commis- 
sioner for  that  purpose,  met  the  Senecas  and  other  tribes 
Tune,  of  the  Six  Nations  at  Painted  Post,  now  Corning,  on 
the  Chemung,  a  northwest  branch  of  the  Susquehan- 
na  ;  and  this  interview  had  a  good  effect  toward  ap- 
peasing the  discontents  of  those  tribes,  and  preventing 
them  from  co-operating  with  the  hostile  Indians.  A  new 
attempt  at  mediation  was  even  promised  by  Hendricks, 
a  chief  of  the  Stockbridge  Indians,  who  were  now  settled 
among  the  Six  Nations  ;  but  this,  too,  failed,  like  the  for- 
mer one. 

Fears  were  even  entertained  that  the  Southern  tribes 
might  be  led  to  take  part  in  the  war.      Projects  were  on 


ST.    GLAIR'S    CAMPAIGN.  283 

foot,  based  on  the  late  purchases  made  from  Georgia,  for  CHAPTER 
two  settlements,  one  near  the  Muscle  Shoals  of  the  Ten-         ' 
nessee,  the  other  further  west,  on  the  lands  of  the  Choc-  1791. 
taws,  both  of  which  were  likely  to  give  great  offense  to 
the  Indians.    The  Cherokees  still  complained  of  encroach-     July, 
ments  on  their  lands,  but  were  quieted  for  the  present  by 
a  treaty  negotiated  by  Blount,  the  governor  of  the  Terri- 
tory south  of  the  Ohio,  by  which  an  annuity  was  secured 
to  them  of  $1000  as  a  compensation  for  the  lands  occu- 
pied by  white  intruders.      In  his  private  correspondence, 
Washington  expressed  the  opinion  that  there  was  little 
hope  of  settled  peace  with  the  Indians  so  long  as  the 
spirit  of  land-jobbing  prevailed,  and  the  frontier  inhabit- 
ants entertained  the  opinion  that  it  was  a  less  crime  to 
kill  an  Indian  than  a  white  man,  or,  rather,  no  crime 
at  all. 

A  second  expedition  of  Kentucky  mounted  volunteers,  Aug. 
led  by  Wilkinson  against  the  tribes  on  the  Wabash,  had 
nearly  the  same  results  as  the  former  one.  Another 
village  was  burned,  a  few  warriors  were  killed,  some 
thirty  prisoners  were  taken,  and  several  hundred  acres 
of  growing  corn  were  destroyed.  But  it  was  not  by  such 
desultory  efforts  that  the  Indians  could  be  brought  to 
submission. 

The  season  was  already  advanced  before  St.  Glair's 
army  was  ready  to  take  the  field.  The  whole  force  of 
regulars  and  levies  able  to  march  from  Fort  Washington  Sept  17 
did  not  much  exceed  two  thousand  men  ;  but  some  re-en- 
forcements of  Kentucky  militia  were  expected  to  join. 
The  object  of  the  campaign  was  to  establish  a  line  of 
posts  sufficient  to  maintain  a  communication  from  the 
Ohio  to  the  Maumee,  the  intention  being  to  build  a  strong 
fort  on  that  river,  and  to  leave  in  it  a  garrison  of  a  thou- 
sand men,  large  enough  to  send  out  detachments  -and  to 


284  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  keep  the  neighboring  Indians  in  awe.    Twenty-four  miles 
'       north  of  Fort  Washington,  under  whose  guns  the  infant 

1791.  city  of  Cincinnati  was  slowly  rising,  Fort  Hamilton  was 
built  on  the  Miami  ;  and  forty-four  miles  further  north. 
Fort  Jefferson,  near  the  present  dividing  line  between 
the  states  of  Ohio  and  Indiana.  Several  hundred  Ken- 

Oct.  24.  tucky  militia  having  joined  the  army,  the  march  for  the 
Maumee  was  presently  resumed.  These  militia,  com- 
posed mostly  of  substitutes,  were  regardless  of  discipline 
and  totally  ungovernable.  The  levies  also,  who  had 
been  supplied  with  very  inferior  clothing,  were  in  a  dis- 
contented state,  and  the  term  of  that  part  of  them  who 
had  been  earliest  enlisted  was  just  about  to  expire.  As 
a  road  had  to  be  opened,  and  as  supplies  of  provisions 
were  very  irregularly  furnished  by  the  contractors,  the 
progress  of  the  army  was  exceedingly  slow.  A  week 

Oct.  31.  after  the  advance  from  Fort  Jefferson,  sixty  of  the  militia 
deserted  in  a  body.  Lest  these  deserters  might  plunder 
the  approaching  trains  of  provision  wagons,  and  thus  still 
further  delay  the  march,  that  part  of  the  first  regiment 
employed  in  the  expedition  was  detached  to  meet  the 
wagons  and  escort  them  to  the  camp.  Piamingo,  the 
Mountain  Leader,  with  a  band  of  Chickasaw  warriors, 
had  hitherto  attended  the  army  ;  but  these  auxiliaries 
now  withdrew,  as  if  foreseeing  the  probable  result.  Re- 
duced by  garrisons  and  detachments  to  fourteen  hundred 
effective  men,  after  two  weeks  spent  in  an  advance  of 
twenty-nine  miles  from  Fort  Jefferson,  the  expedition 
reached  at  length  the  southeasternmost  head  waters  of 
the  Wabash,  which  St.  Clair  seems  to  have  mistaken  for 
those  of  the  St.  Mary's,  a  tributary  of  the  Maumee.  A 
few  Indians  were  seen,  but  they  fled  with  precipitation, 
and  the  day  being  nearly  spent,  the  troops  encamped,  the 
regulars  and  levies  in  two  lines,  covered  by  the  stream, 


ST.    GLAIR'S    DEFEAT.  285 

the  militia  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  advance  on  the  CHAPTER 

other  side  of  it.  

Early  the  next  morning,  about  sunrise,  just  as  the  1791. 
troops  were  dismissed  from  parade,  the  camp  of  the  mi-  Nov-  '* 
litia  was  suddenly  attacked.  The  regulars  who  com- 
posed the  first  line  on  the  other  side  of  the  stream  formed 
at  the  first  alarm ;  but  the  flying  militia,  rushing  pell- 
mell  upon  them,  threw  them  into  disorder.  Closely  fol- 
lowing up  the  fugitives,  and  taking  advantage  of  this 
confusion,  firing  from  the  ground  or  the  shelter  afforded 
by  the  scattered  trees  and  bushes,  and  scarcely  seen  ex- 
cept when  springing  from  one  covert  to  another,  the  In- 
dians advanced  in  front  and  on  either  flank  close  upon 
the  American  lines,  and  up  to  the  very  mouths  of  the 
field-pieces,  from  which  the  men  were  repeatedly  driven 
with  slaughter.  The  front  line  of  regulars  never  recover- 
ed from  its  first  confusion.  The  second  line  made  several 
charges  with  the  bayonet,  before  which  the  Indians  gave 
way  ;  but  they  soon  rallied,  and  renewed  the  attack  as 
fiercely  as  ever.  In  these  charges  many  officers  fell — 
General  Butler,  among  the  rest,  with  a  mortal  wound. 
The  Indians  had  gained  the  left  flank  of  the  encamp- 
ment. Half  the  force  had  already  been  killed  or  disabled. 
The  survivors  flocked  together  in  crowded  confusion,  and 
were  shot  down  almost  without  resistance.  The  artillery 
was  left  without  a  man  to  work  the  guns.  St.  Clair  lay 
helpless  in  his  tent,  suffering  from  severe  disease,  and  not 
able  to  mount  his  horse  without  assistance.  A  large  pro- 
portion of  the  officers  had  already  fallen  in  their  attempts 
to  rally  and  lead  on  their  men.  It  was  apparent  that 
nothing  but  instant  retreat  could  save  the  remnant  of 
the  army  from  total  destruction.  The  shattered  troops 
were  collected  toward  the  right  of  the  encampment ;  a 
charge  was  made,  as  if  to  turn  the  right  flank  of  the  en- 


286  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  emy  ;  the  road  was  gained ;  the  militia  took  the  lead  • 
'  and  Major  Clarke,  with  his  battalion  of  regulars,  cov- 
1791.  ered  the  rear.  The  retreat  was  most  disorderly;  in  fact, 
a  precipitate  flight.  Not  only  were  the  baggage  and 
artillery  abandoned,  but  the  greater  part  of  the  men 
threw  away  their  arms  and  accouterments.  The  In- 
dians soon  gave  over  the  pursuit ;  but  the  flying  troops 
did  not  stop  till  they  reached  Fort  Jefferson,  where  they 
arrived  about  sunset  completely  exhausted,  one  day's 
flight  having  carried  them  over  the  space  of  a  fortnight's 
advance.  Here  the  first  regiment  was  found  about  three 
hundred  strong.  Its  presence  in  the  fieid,  in  St.  Glair's 
opinion,  would  not  have  altered  the  fortune  of  the  day, 
as  the  troops  possessed  too  little  discipline  to  recover 
from  their  first  confusion,  while  its  destruction  would 
have  completed  the  triumph  of  the  enemy,  and  left  the 
frontier  without  any  organized  defense.  There  was  no 
sufficient  supply  of  provisions  at  Fort  Jefferson,  and, 
leaving  the  wounded  there,  the  army  fell  back  to  Fort 
Washington,  its  point  of  departure.  The  loss  in  this 
disastrous  enterprise  amounted  to  upward  of  nine  hund- 
red men,  including  fifty-nine  officers.  The  killed  reached 
the  unusual  proportion  of  six  hundred.  Of  the  force  and 
loss  of  the  Indians  no  very  distinct  account  was  ever  ob- 
tained. They  were  supposed  to  have  numbered  from  a 
thousand  to  fifteen  hundred,  including  a  proportion  of 
half-breeds  and  refugees,  among  them  the  notorious  Si- 
mon Girty,  active,  for  many  years  past,  in  the  war 
against  Kentucky.  The  principal  leader  was  said  to 
have  been  Little  Turtle,  a  chief  of  the  Miamis,  who  had 
led  in  the  attack  on  Harmer  the  year  before. 

The  repulse  of  St.  Clair  produced  the  greatest  alarm 
on  the  whole  northwestern  frontier,  extending  even  to 
Pittsburg ;  but  the  Indians  failed  to  follow  up  their  ad- 


MEMBERS    OF    THE    SECOND    CONGRESS.         281 
vantage.      About  two  months  after  the  battle,  Wilkin-  CHAPTER 

IV. 

son,  who  had  meanwhile  been  appointed  to  command  the 

second  regiment,  marched  from  Fort  Jefferson,  with  two  1791. 
companies  of  regulars  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  mounted 
volunteers,  to  visit  the  field.  Though  covered  with  snow 
a  foot  deep,  it  presented  a  horrid  spectacle.  The  dead 
were  buried;  one  piece  of  cannon  was  brought  off;  the 
carriages  of  the  other  pieces  remained,  but  the  guns  them- 
selves were  not  to  be  found.  There  was  not  a  tree  or 
bush  in  the  neighborhood  not  marked  by  musket-balls.  No 
Indians  any  where  appeared.  Yet,  during  Wilkinson's 
absence  from  Fort  Jefferson,  a  party  of  the  garrison,  hav- 
ing wandered  a  mile  or  two  from  the  fort,  had  been  set 
upon,  and  several  of  them  killed. 

On  the  very  day  that  St.  Clair  set  out  on  his  unfor-  Oct.  24. 
tunate  march  from  Fort  Jefferson,  the  second  Congress, 
in  conformity  to  an  act  of  the  last  session,  anticipating 
the  usual  day  of  meeting,  had  assembled  at  Philadelphia. 
Though  the  greater  part  of  the  retiring  senators  had  been 
re-elected,  some  changes  had  taken  place  in  that  body. 
Preferring  to  confine  himself  to  his  duties  as  President 
of  Columbia  College,  Johnson  had  resigned,  and  his  seat 
as  senator  from  Connecticut  was  filled  by  the  venerable 
Sherman.  Another  new  member  was  George  Cabot,  of 
Massachusetts,  since  Bowdoin's  recent  death  the  most 
distinguished  merchant  of  New  England.  ,  Bred  origin- 
ally a  ship-master,  by  sagacity  in  mercantile  matters  he 
had  acquired  an  ample  fortune,  and  being  much  more 
than  a  mere  merchant,  endowed  with  a  vigorous  and 
comprehensive  understanding,  at  the  same  time  a  reader 
of  books  and  an  observer  of  men,  few  persons  were  better 
qualified  for  the  difficult  task  of  judicious  legislation. 
Moses  Robinson,  once  governor  and  repeatedly  chief  just- 
ice of  Vermont,  appeared  as  one  of  the  senators  for  that 


HISTORY    OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  now  state;  the  other  was  Stephen  W.Bradley,  long  a 
_.  very  active  politician.      But  the  most  remarkable  of  the 

1791.  new  senators  was  Aaron  Burr,  of  New  York,  successor  to 
General  Schuyler.  There  was  a  majority  of  Federalist* 
in  the  New  York  Assembly  sufficient  to  have  secured 
the  re-election  of  Schuyler  ;  but  the  plain,  downright, 
and  not  very  ceremonious  manners  of  the  old  general 
placed  him  at  decided  disadvantage  when  compared  with 
the  artful,  affable,  and  fascinating  Burr.  In  the  late 
gubernatorial  contest  Burr  had  supported  the  anti-Clinto- 
nian  candidate,  and  he  doubtless  succeeded  in  satisfying 
the  Federalists  that  he,  as  well  as  Schuyler,  was  on  their 
side.  Burr's  grandfather  was  a  German,  who  had  set- 
tled originally  in  Fairfield,  in  Connecticut  ;  his  father, 
minister  of  Newark,  in  New  Jersey,  was  the  first  Pres- 
ident of  Princeton  College  ;  his  mother  was  a  daughter 
of  the  celebrated  Jonathan  Edwards.-  After  graduating 
at  Princeton  at  an  early  age,  he  had  commenced  the  study 
of  the  law  ;  but  the  war  of  the  Revolution  breaking  out. 
he  had  joined  the  camp  before  Boston,  and  had  follow- 
ed Arnold  in  his  expedition  to  Canada.  Montgomery  ap- 
pointed him  an  aid-de-camp,  and  he  stood  at  that  gen- 
eral's side  when  he  was  killed  in  the  assault  on  Quebec 
He  was  afterward  an  aid-de-camp  to  Putnam,  in  which 
capacity  he  served  during  the  retreat  from  New  York. 
Upon  the  organization  of  the  permanent  army  he  was  so 
fortunate  as  to  obtain  the  command  of  one  of  the  New 
York  battalions.  Not  thinking  himself  sufficiently  no- 
ticed by  Washington,  who  seems  to  have  early  penetra- 
ted his  character,  he  conceived  a  bitter  hostility  against 
the  commander-in-chief,  and  actively  participated  in  the 
intrigue  of  Conway  and  Mifflin.  He  also  sided  with 
Lee  in  the  difficulty  growing  out  of  the  battle  of  Mon- 
mouth,  in  which  engagement  Burr  bore  a  part.  Aftej 


MEMBERS    OF   THE    SECOND    CONGRESS.         £89 

two  active   campaigns  he  resigned  his  commission  and  CHAPTER 

recommenced  the  study  of  the  law,  upon  the  practice  of  

which  he  entered  at  New  York  shortly  after  its  evac-  1791. 
uation  by  the  British.  An  act  had  been  passed  by  the 
Legislature  just  before  the  peace,  and  in  anticipation  of 
it,  disqualifying  from  practice  all  attorneys  and  coun- 
selors who  could  not  produce  satisfactory  certificates  of 
Whig  principles.  This  law  remained  in  force  for  three 
or  four  years,  and  it  enabled  Burr,  Hamilton,  and  other 
young  advocates  to  obtain  a  run  of  practice  which  other- 
wise they  might  not  have  reached  so  early.  Hamilton 
was  indeed  a  very  able  lawyer,  but  Burr,  though  re-  , 

garded  as  his  rival,  seems  to  have  trusted  more  to  sub- 
tleties, finesse,  and  nice  points  of  technicality  than  to 
any  enlarged  application  of  more  generous  legal  prin- 
ciples. He  was  soon  elected  to  the  state  Legislature ; 
but  that  post  he  did  not  long  retain,  having  given  offense 
to  his  constituents  on  some  local  question.  Governor 
Clinton  appointed  him  Attorney  General,  possibly  with 
a  view  to  conciliate  a  man  whose  political  talent  and  in- 
fluence were  already  distinguished.  Clinton  professed, 
indeed,  not  to  be  influenced  in  his  appointments  to  office 
by  personal  or  party  considerations,  to  which  profession 
he  acted  up  with  more  consistency  than  is  always  dis- 
played by  those  who  make  it.  The  election  of  Burr  to 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States  was  perhaps  a  counter- 
bid  from  the  Federal  side. 

In  several  of  the  states  the  election  of  members  of  the 
House  had  been  warmly  contested,  and  the  number  of 
those  opposed  to  the  prevailing  policy  had  been  somewhat 
increased.  Yet  a  large  proportion  of  the  old  members 
had  been  rechosen :  from  New  Hampshire,  Livermore ; 
from  Massachusetts,  Gerry,  Ames,  Goodhue,  and  Sedg- 
wick  :  from  Connecticut,  Trumbull  and  Wadswortb  ; 
TV.— T 


290  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  from  New  York,  Lawrence  and  Benson  ;  Boudinot  from 

JV. 

New  Jersey  :  Fitzsimmons,  Hartley,  and  Frederic  H. 
1791.  Muhlenburg  from  Pennsylvania ;  Vining  from  Delaware ; 
Madison,  Page,  Giles — indeed,  all  the  old  members  from 
Virginia,  with  a  single  exception  ;  Williamson  from 
North  Carolina  ;  Smith,  Sumter,  and  Tucker  from  South 
Carolina  ;  and  Baldwin  from  Georgia.  Among  the  new 
members  were  Arternas  Ward,  of  Massachusetts,  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  Massachusetts  army  of  1775, 
and  first  Continental  major  general;  William  Van  Mur- 
ray, of  Maryland ;  James  Hillhouse,  of  Connecticut  ; 
Jonathan  Dayton  and  Abraham  Clark,  of  New  Jersey, 
the  latter  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence ;  William  Findley  and  Andrew  Gregg,  of  Penn- 
sylvania ;  and  Nathaniel  Macon,  of  North  Carolina.  An- 
thony Wayne,  who  had  lately  removed  to  Georgia,  had 
been  returned  as  one  of  the  representatives  of  that  state, 
in  place  of  the  voluble  and  impetuous  Jackson.  But 
Jackson  petitioned  against  the  return,  in  which  he  was 
supported  by  a  vote  of  the  Georgia  Assembly,  who  or- 
dered proceedings  forthwith  against  certain  parties  ac- 
cused of  malpractice  in  the  matter,  some  of  whom  were 
subjected  to  punishment.  Toward  the  close  of  the  ses- 
sion, Wayne  was  unanimously  deprived  of  his  seat ;  but 
an  attempt  to  give  it  to  Jackson  failed  by  the  speaker's 
casting  vote,  and  a  new  election  was  ordered. 

Muhlenburg,  the  Speaker  of  the  first  Congress,  was  a 
member  of  this,  but  the  chair  was  given  to  Trumbull  of 
Connecticut,  perhaps  on  the  principle  of  rotation  in  of- 
fice. The  president,  in  his  speech,  congratulated  Con- 
gress on  the  prosperity  of  the  nation,  the  productiveness 
of  the  revenue,  and  the  disposition  generally  evinced  to 
submit  to  the  new  excise  duties.  He  announced  the  se- 
lection of  a  site  for  the  federal  capital  on  both  sides  of 


STATE    OF    PARTIES.    JEFFERSON.  £9i 

the  River  Potomac,  on  the  north  bank  of  which  the  new  CHAPTER 

IV. 

federal  city  was  already  laid  out.      The  organization  of L_ 

the  militia,  the  reorganization  of  the  post-office  depart-  1791 
ment,  the  establishment  of  a  mint,  uniformity  of  weights 
and  measures,  and  a  provision  for  the  sale  of  the  vacant 
lands  of  the  United  States,  were  again  pressed  upon  the 
attention  of  Congress.  The  president  also  dwelt  at 
length  upon  Indian  affairs,  and  upon  a  just,  impartial, 
and  humane  policy  toward  the  Indian  tribes  as  essential 
to  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  peace  on  the 
frontiers* 

That  same  modification  of  political  parties  which  had 
taken  place  throughout  the  country  soon  made  itself  ap- 
parent in  the  new  Congress.  The  Federalists,  from  be* 
ing  mere  supporters  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  had  be- 
come supporters  of  the  particular  scheme  of  policy  recom- 
mended by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  carried 
into  effect  by  the  first  Congress.  The  anti-Federalists, 
on  the  other  hand,  dropping  their  late  objections  to  the 
Constitution,  had  subsided,  for  the  most  part,  into  oppo- 
nents of  Hamilton  and  his  financial  system.  This  party, 
a  minority  in  the  House,  and  yet  more  so  in  the  Senate, 
found,  however,  an  able  coadjutor,  and  even  a  leader,  in 
the  very  bosom  of  the  cabinet,  where  a  conflict  of  opin- 
ions upon  points  both  theoretical  and  practical,  not  un- 
mixed with  strong  personal  jealousies,  had  already  begun 
to  show  itself. 

Gifted  by  nature  with  a  penetrating  understanding,  a 
lively  fancy,  and  sensibilities  quick  and  warm;  endow* 
ed  with  powers  of  pleasing,  joined  to  a  desire  to  please, 
which  made  him,  in  the  private  circle,  when  surrounded 
by  friends  and  admirers,  one  of  the  most  agreeable  of 
men  ;  exceedingly  anxious  to  make  a  figure,  yet  far  more 
desirous  of  applause  than  of  power ;  fond  of  hypothesis, 


292  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  inclined  to  dogmatize,  little  disposed  to  argument  or  con- 
troversy.  impatient  of  opposition,  seeing  every  thing  so 
1791.  highly  colored  by  his  feelings  as  to  be  quite  incapable  of 
candor  or  justice  toward  those  who  differed  from  him  : 
adroit,  supple,  insinuating,  and,  where  he  had  an  object 
to  accomplish,  understanding  well  how  to  flatter  and  to 
captivate ;  led  by  the  warmth  of  his  feelings  to  lay  him- 
self open  to  his  friends,  but  toward  the  world  at  large 
cautious  and  shy ;  cast,  both  as  to  intellect  and  temper- 
ament, in  a  mold  rather  feminine  than  masculine,  Jef- 
ferson had  returned  from  France,  strengthened  and  con- 
firmed by  his  residence  and  associations  there  in  those 
theoretical  ideas  of  liberty  and  equality  to  which  he  had 
given  utterance  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

During  his  residence  in  Europe,  as  well  as  pending 
the  Revolutionary  struggle,  Jefferson's  attention  seems  to 
have  been  almost  exclusively  directed  toward  abuses  of 
power.  Hence  his  political  philosophy  was  almost  en- 
tirely negative — its  sum  total  seeming  to  be  the  reduction 
of  the  exercise  of  authority  within  the  narrowest  possible 
limits,  even  at  the  risk  of  depriving  government  of  its 
ability  for  good  as  well  as  for  evil ;  a  theory  extremely 
well  suited  to  place  him  at  the  head  of  those  who,  for 
various  reasons,  wished  to  restrict,  as  far  as  might  be, 
the  authority  of  the  new  general  government. 

Though  himself  separated  from  the  mass  of  the  people 
by  eleganct  of  manners,  refined  tastes,  and  especially  by 
philosophical  opinions  on  the  subject  of  religion,  in  polit- 
ical affairs  Jefferson  was  disposed  to  allow  a  controlling, 
indeed  absolute  authority  to  the  popular  judgment.  The 
many  he  thought  to  be  always  more  honest  and  disinter- 
ested, and  in  questions  where  the  public  interests  were 
concerned,  more  wise  than  the  few,  who  might  always 
be  suspected  of  having  private  purposes  of  their  own  t\ 


JOHN    ADAMS.  293 

serve.      Hence  he  was  ever  ready  to  allow  even  his  most  CHAPTEK 
cherished  theoretical  principles  to  drop  into  silence  t'rm 
moment  he  found  them  in  conflict  with  the  popular  cur-  1791, 
rent.      To  sympathize  with  popular  passions  seemed  to 
be  his  test  of  patriotism  ;  to  sail  before  the  wind  as  a 
popular  favorite,  the  great  object  of  his  ambition  ;   and  it 
was  under  the  character  of  a  condescending  friend  of  the 
people  that  he  rose  first  to  be  the  head  of  a  party,  and 
then  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  nation. 

The  two  men  who  stood  most  immediately  and  obvi- 
ously in  Jefferson's  way  were  John  Adams,  the  vice- 
president,  and  Hamilton,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury ; 
men  in  character,  temperament,  and  opinions  as  differ- 
ent from  him  as  they  were  from  each  other.  By  dint 
of  untiring  energy,  seconded  by  great  natural  abilities, 
and  an  unextinguishable  thirst  for  eminence  which  brooked 
no  superior  and  hardly  an  equal,  Adams  had  risen  from 
the  condition  of  a  country  lawyer,  the  son  of  a  poor  farm- 
er and  mechanic,  through  various  grades  of  public  serv- 
ice, to  the  eminence  which  he  now  held.  Nor  did  his  as- 
pirations stop  short  of  the  highest  distinction  in  the  power 
of  the  nation  to  bestow.  Having  risen  by  no  paltry  arts 
of  popularity  or  intrigue,  for  which  he  was  but  little  fit- 
ted, nor  by  any  captivating  charm  of  personal  manners, 
which  he  was  very  far  from  possessing,  but  owing  every 
thing  to  the  respect  which  his  powerful  talents,  his  un- 
wearied labors,  and  his  great  public  services  had  inspired, 
he  still  desired  to  be  what  he  always  had  been,  a  leader 
rather  than  a  follower,  rather  to  guide  public  opinion 
than  merely  to  sail  before  it.  He,  too,  had  his  political 
theories,  very  different  from  those  of  Jefferson — theories 
which  he  had  not  hesitated  to  set  forth  with  a  frankness 
very  dangerous  to  his  popularity.  Alarmed  at  the  lev- 
eling principles,  as  he  esteemed  them,  to  which  the  prog- 


294  HISTORY    OF  THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  ress  of  the  French  Revelation  had  given  rise,  he  had 
'  lately  published,  in  Fenno's  United  States  Gazette,  a 
1791.  series  of  "  Discourses  on  Davilla,"  in  which  his  political 
views  were  enforced  and  explained,  not  a  little  to  the 
disgust  of  Jefferson  and  others,  who  professed  peculiar  re- 
gard for  popular  rights.  Taking  the  history  of  nations, 
particularly  Davilla's  account  of  the  French  civil  wars, 
and  the  aspect  of  society,  as  his  text,  Adams  pointed  out 
as  the  great  spring  of  human  activity,  at  least  in  all  that 
related  to  politics,  the  love  of  superiority,  the  desire  of 
distinction,  admiration,  and  applause.  Hence,  in  all  so- 
cieties, perpetual  struggles  for  power  ;  nor,  in  his  opin 
ion,  could  any  form  of  government  be  permanent  or  se- 
cure which  did  not  provide  as  well  for  the  reasonable 
gratification  as  for  the  due  restraint  of  this  powerful  pas- 
sion. As  a  means  toward  gratifying  it  in  a  harmless 
way,  Adams  was  inclined  to  favor  a  liberal  use  of  titles 
of  honor  and  other  ceremonious  distinctions  ;  and  on  this 
same  ground  he  vindicated  the  institution  of  a  senate, 
seats  in  which  might  serve  as  a  legitimate  object  of  am- 
bition to  the  rich  and  well-born.  To  counteract  the  en- 
croachments of  this  aristocratical  body,  a  popular  assem- 
bly on  the  broadest  basis  would  be  necessary ;  and,  to 
hold  the  balance  between  the  two,  and  to  prevent  the 
one  from  gradually  encroaching  upon  and  ultimately  an- 
nihilating the  other,  a  powerful  executive.  Only  by 
means  of  such  an  equilibrium  of  authority,  as  it  seemed 
to  him,  could  liberty  be  secure,  and  in  establishing  and 
maintaining  such  a  balance  consisted  the  great  art  and 
science  of  government.  Whether  the  frequent  elections 
of  governors  and  senators,  adopted  under  the  American 
Constitutions,  would  not  rather  serve  as  an  avenue  to 
corruption  instead  of  excluding  it,  as  the  theory  was, 
Adams  seemed  greatly  to  doubt*  and  to  incline  to  the 


JUHN    ADAMS  295 

opinion  that  the  time  would  come  when  hereditary  de-  CHAPTER 
scent  would   be   regarded   as   less  an  evil  than   annual 
fraud,  if  not  violence  also.      Even  in  New  England,  as  1791. 
he  pointed  out,  communities  and  governments  the  most 
democratic  in  the  world,  the  influence  of  family  and  the 
claim  to  hereditary  respect  had  been  recognized  in  the  po- 
litical honors  freely  bestowed  by  annual  election,  through 
successive  generations,  on  members  of  a  few  distinguished 
families,  to  which  the  higher  offices  had  been  chiefly  re- 
stricted. 

On  the  basis  of  these  principles  Adams  had  concluded 
that  the  new  French  Constitution,  which  disavowed  all 
distinctions  of  rank,  which  vested  the  legislative  author- 
ity in  a  single  assembly,  and  which,  though  retaining 
the  office  of  king,  stripped  it  of  a  large  portion  of  its 
power,  could  not  be  lasting.  As  to  Paine's  "  Rights  of 
Man,"  an  American  edition  of  the  first  part  of  which 
had  just  been  published,  prefaced  by  a  very  compliment- 
ary note  from  Jefferson,  not  without  an  evident  slur  at 
the  political  heresies  of  the  Discourses  on  Davilla,  Adams 
declared  that  he  held  that  pamphlet  in  utter  detestation. 
Nor  was  it  long  before  a  criticism  upon  it,  under  the  sig- 
nature of  "  Publicola,"  made  its  appearance  in  a  Boston 
paper,  written  by  John  Quincy  Adams,  son  of  the  vice- 
president,  but  which  rumor  ascribed  to  the  vice-president 
himself.  In  the  promising  talents  of  that  son,  in  energy 
and  labor  not  inferior  to  his  father,  though  in  some  other 
respects  much  below  him,  Adams  could  hardly  fail  to  see 
additional  ground  for  his  idea,  that  hereditary  distinctions 
were  but  in  conformity  to  the  order  of  nature. 

In  this  theory  of  politics  Adams  seems  entirely  to 
have  overlooked  one  most  important  consideration.  If 
the  love  of  superiority  and  distinction  leads  to  the  insti- 
tution of  ranks  and  orders,  that  very  same  sentiment 


296  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  diffusing  itself  through  the  mass  of  the  people,  produce? 

..  .'  impatience  of  the  superiority  of  others,  and  a  disinclina- 
1791.  tion  to  submit  to  that  inferiority  which  the  existence  of 
ranks  and  orders  implies.  Hence  it  would  seem  to  fol- 
low that,  in  a  country  like  America,  where  the  senti- 
ment of  political  equality  was  so  widely  diffused,  any 
thing  approaching  to  a  distinction  of  ranks  was  quite 
out  of  the  question,  democratical  equality  being,  in  fact, 
only  a  further  development  of  the  effects  of  that  very 
same  sentiment  out  of  which  aristocratical  distinctions 
originally  grow. 

Much  less  of  a  scholar  or  a  speculatist  than  either 
Jefferson  or  Adams,  but  a  very  sagacious  observer  of 
mankind,  and  possessed  of  practical  talents  of  the  high- 
est order,  Hamilton's  theory  of  government  seems  to  have 
been  almost  entirely  founded  on  what  had  passed  under 
his  own  observation  during  the  war  of  the  Revolution 
and  subsequently,  previous  to  the  adoption  of  the  new 
Constitution.  As  Washington's  confidential  aid-de-camp, 
and  as  a  member  of  the  Continental  Congress  after  the 
peace,  he  had  become  very  strongly  impressed  with  the 
impossibility  of  duly  providing  for  the  public  good,  es- 
pecially in  times  of  war  and  danger,  except  by  a  govern- 
ment invested  with  ample  powers,  and  possessing  means 
for  putting  those  powers  into  vigorous  exercise.  To  give 
due  strength  to  a  government,  it  was  necessary,  in  his 
opinion,  not  only  to  invest  it  on  paper  with  sufficient 
legal  authority,  but  to  attach  the  most  wealthy  and  in- 
fluential part  of  the  community  to  it  by  the  ties  of  per- 
sonal and  pecuniary  advantage;  for,  though  himself  re- 
markably disinterested,  acting  under  an  exalted  sense  a! 
personal  honor  and  patriotic  duty,  Hamilton  was  inclined, 
like  many  other  men  of  the  world,  to  ascribe  to  motives 
of  pecuniary  and  personal  interest  a  somewhat  greater 


HAMILTON    AND    JEFFERSON.  £9^ 

influence  over  the   course  of  events  than  they  actually  CHAPTEB 
possess.      Having  but  little  confidence  either  in  the  vir-  _, 

tue  or  the  judgment  of  the  mass  of  mankind,  he  thought  1791. 
the  administration  of  affairs  most  safe  in  the  hands  of  a 
select  few  ;  nor  in  private  conversation  did  he  disguise 
his  opinion  that,  to  save  her  liberties  from  foreign  at- 
tack or  intestine  commotions,  America  might  yet  be  driv- 
en into  serious  alterations  of  her  Constitution,  giving  to 
it  more  of  a  monarchical  and  aristocratical  cast.  He 
had  the  sagacity  to  perceive,  what  subsequent  experience 
has  abundantly  confirmed,  that  the  Union  had  rather  to 
dread  resistance  of  the  states  to  federal  power  than  ex- 
ecutive usurpation  ;  but  he  was  certainly  mistaken  in 
supposing  that  a  president  and  senate  for  life  or  good 
behavior,  such  as  he  had  suggested  in  the  Federal  Con- 
vention, could  have  given  any  additional  strength  to  the 
government.  That  strength,  under  all  elective  systems, 
must  depend  on  public  confidence,  and  public  confidence 
is  best  tested  and  secured  by  frequent  appeals  to  the  pop- 
ular  vote. 

Hardly  was  Jefferson  warm  in  his  new  office  as  a 
member  of  the  cabinet,  when  he  appears  to  have  adopt- 
ed the  idea,  founded,  it  would  seem,  on  casual  expres- 
sions of  speculative  opinion  dropped  in  the  freedom  of 
unreserved  social  intercourse,  that  a  conspiracy  was  on 
foot,  headed  by  Adams  and  Hamilton,  to  overturn  the 
republican  institutions  of  the  United  States,  and  to  sub- 
stitute a  monarchy  and  an  aristocracy  in  their  place,  the 
monarchy  being  principally  patronized  by  Hamilton  and 
the  aristocracy  by  Adams,  and  both  being  inclined  to 
give  to  the  wealthier  and  more  intelligent  few  a  very 
disproportionate  influence  in  the  government. 

Though  a  great  advocate  for  toleration  and  liberality 
In  matters  of  religion,  in  politics  Jefferson  was  a  com- 


298  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES, 

CHAPTER  plete  bigot.  One  single  speculative  error  outweighed. 
..  in  his  estimation,  the  most  devoted  patriotism,  the  most 
1791.  unquestionable  public  services.  Assuming  to  himself 
the  office  at  once  of  spy  and  censor  on  his  colleagues,  he 
adopted  the  practice  of  setting  down  in  a  note-book  ev- 
ery heretical  opinion  carelessly  dropped— every  little 
piece  of  gossip  reported  to  him  by  others  which  .might 
tend  to  convict  his  associates  in  the  cabinet  of  political 
infidelity — anecdotes  recorded,  not  as  instances  of  the 
speculative  errors  into  which  the  wisest  and  the  best 
may  fall,  but  carefully  laid  up  as  evidences  against  po- 
litical rivals  of  settled  designs  hostile  to  the  liberties  of 
their  country.  Nor  was  he  content  with  merely  making 
this  remarkable  record.  After  the  lapse  of  twenty-five 
years  or  more,  "  when  the  passions  of  the  times  were 
passed  away,  and  the  reasons  of  the  transactions  act 
alone  upon  the  judgment,"  such  is  his  own  account  of 
the  matter,  he  gave  the  whole  a  "  calm  perusal,"  and 
having  cut  out  certain  parts  because  he  had  ascertained 
that  they  were  "  incorrect  or  doubtful,"  or  because  they 
were  "  merely  personal  or  private,"  he  prefixed  a  char- 
acteristic preface  to  the  rest,  and  left  them  to  be  pub- 
lished after  his  death,  as  proofs  of  the  services  he  had 
rendered  to  his  country  in  saving  it  from  a  monarchical 
and  aristpcratical  conspiracy.  It  was  against  Hamilton 
that  the  bitterness  of  a  hatred  at  once  personal  and  po- 
litical was  most  keenly  directed.  The  splendid  reputa- 
tion gained  by  the  success  of  Hamilton's  financial  meas- 
ures, fixing  all  eyes  upon  him  as  the  leading  spirit  of 
the  government,  though  Jefferson  nominally  held  the  first 
place  in  the  cabinet  •  his  great  popularity  thereby  ac- 
quired with  the  mercantile  and  moneyed  class ;  more 
than  all,  his  weight  and  influence  with  Washington,  ex- 
cited in  the  mind  of  Jefferson  a  most  violent  antipathy, 


HAMILTON  AND  JEFFERSON.         299 

partly   growing  out  of  mere   personal  jealousy,  partly  CHAPTEB 

based  on  imagined  dangers  to  the  liberties  of  the  c<»un- 

try — who  can  tell  in  what  precise  proportions?  All  the  1791 
measures  adopted  on  Hamilton's  recommendation,  even 
those  which  he  had  himself  concurred  to  bring  about — 
as  in  the  case  of  the  assumption  of  the  state  debts — be- 
gan to  be  seen  by  Jefferson  through  a  most  discolored 
medium.  Overlooking  the  justice  and  the  expediency 
of  a  provision  for  the  national  creditors,  and  the  great 
benefits  to  the  country  at  large  resulting  from  that 
measure,  in  his  private  correspondence,  on  which  he  prin- 
cipally relied  for  the  diffusion  of  his  political  ideas,  he 
already  began  to  denounce  the  entire  funding  system, 
especially  the  assumption  of  the  state  debts,  as  a  mere 
piece  of  jugglery  and  corruption,  intended  to  purchase 
up  friends  for  the  new  government,  and  especially  for 
Hamilton,  and  designed  to  pave  the  way  toward  an  aris- 
tocracy and  a  monarchy.  The  recently  chartered  bank 
was  denounced  with  no  less  vehemence  as  another  step 
in  the  same  direction.  All  these  measures  had  been 
warmly  opposed  by  a  minority  of  the  late  Congress, 
many  of  whom,  with  some  others  inclined  to  the  same 
opinions,  had  been  elected  to  the  new  one  ;  and  of  this 
minority  Jefferson  soon  came  to  be  the  out-of-door  lead- 
er, as  Hamilton  was  of  the  majority.  That  majority,  or, 
at  least,  an  undefined  portion  of  it,  including  some  of  the 
most  eminent  names  in  American  history,  Jefferson  and 
his  friends  did  not  hesitate  to  denounce  as  a  "  corrupt 
squadron,"  actually  bought  up  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  or,  at  least,  secured  to  his  service,  by  being 
enabled,  through  his  means,  to  enrich  themselves  by  un- 
warrantable speculations  in  the  public  stocks,  and  ready, 
at  all  times,  to  sell  themselves  and  their  country  for  the 
privilege  of  public  plunder.  Abjuring  the  name  of  anti- 


300  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Federalists — for  the  Federal  Constitution  was  growing 

every  day  more  popular — Jefferson  and  his  friends  of  the 

'791.  opposition  assumed  to  themselves  the  title  of  REPUBLICANS, 
as  if  they  alone  were  the  true  friends  of  republican  gov 
ernmentj  while  they  sought  to  fix  on  the  Federal  lead- 
ers the  stigma  of  being  monarchists  and  aristocrats. 
Shortly  after  the  meeting  of  Congress,  to  counteract  the 
influence  of  Fenno's  Gazette,  considered  to  be  at  the 
beck  of  the  Treasury,  and  in  which  Adams's  Discourses 
on  Da  villa  were  published,  an  opposition  journal  was  got 
up,  called  the  "  National  Gazette,"  edited  by  Philip  Fre- 
neau,  formerly  a  classmate  of  Madison's  at  Princeton  Col- 
lege, known  as  a  writer  of  fugitive  verses  and  other  pie- 
ces of  a  satirical  character.  Though  Jefferson  disclaim- 
ed any  connection  with  this  paper,  he  gave  to  Freneau, 
about  the  time  that  its  publication  began,  the  place  of 
translating  clerk  in  his  office.  The  salary  was  but  a 
trifle  ;  but  then  this  place  was  the  only  piece  of  patron- 
age in  Jefferson's  gift,  who  contrasted,  not  without  some 
feeling,  his  position  in  this  respect  with  that  of  Hamil- 
ton, who  had  so  many  collectorships,  supervisorships,  and 
other  lucrative  posts  to  dispose  of.  The  new  paper,  not 
without  wit  as  well  as  malice,  began  with  throwing  out 
slurs  at  Adams  and  Hamilton,  the  "  corrupt  squadron," 
the  funding  system,  and  treasury  influence.  Very  soon 
it  became,  as  Hamilton  presently  described  it,  "  intem- 
perately  devoted  to  the  abuse  of  the  government  and  all 
the  conspicuous  actors  in  it,  except  the  Secretary  of 
State  and  his  coadjutors,  who  were  the  constant  theme 
of  its  panegyric." 

Parties  in  the  new  Congress  still  retained,  in  a  great 
measure,  their  originally  geographical  character.  The 
opposition  members  were  mostly  from  the  Southern 
States,  particularly  Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  But 


FIRST    CENSUS. 


301 


party  lines  were  not,  as  yet,  very  definitely  drawn,  and  CHAPTER 
there  were  a  considerable  number  of  members  who  occu-          ' 
pied  an  intermediate  position,  voting  sometimes  on  one  1791. 
side  and  sometimes  on  the  other. 

The  first  subject  which  engaged  attention  was  the  re- 
apportionment  of  representatives,  according  to  the  census 
just  completed.  The  following  table  shows  the  result 
of  that  census,  together  with  the  number  of  representa- 
tives allotted  to  each  state  under  the  new  distribution : 


A 

19 
14 

13 
10 
10 
8 
7 
6 
5 
4 
2 
2 
o 

0 

1 

~05 

States. 

Free  white 
males  of  16 
years    and 
upward. 

free  white 
males    un- 
der 16  y'ro. 

Free  white  fe- 
males. 

All  other 
>ersons, 
exc'ptln- 
dians.not 
taxed. 

Slaves. 

Totals. 

Virginia  

110,936 
119,837 

110,788 
84,700 
69,988 
55,916 
60,593 
35,576 
45,251 
36,086 
22,335 
13,103 
15,154 
16,119 
11,783 

6,271 
y,  no  ret 

116,135 
112,037 

106,948 
78,122 
77,506 
51,339 
54,403 
37,722 
41,416 
34,851 
22,328 
14,044 
17,057 
15,799 
12,143 

10,227 
:irn:  on 

215,056 
237,452 

206,363 
152,320 
140,710 
101,395 
117,448 
56,880 
73,287 
70,160 
40,505 
25,739 
28,922 
32,652 
22,384 

15,365 
y  a  few  hi 

12,866 

6,001 

6,537 
4,654 
4,975 
8,043 
2,808 
1,801 
2,762 
630 
225 
398 
114 
3,407 
3,899 

361 
indred 

292,627 

3,737 
21,324 
100,572 
103,036 
2,764 
107,094 
11,423 
158 
16 
29,264 
12,430 
948 
8,887 

3,417 
inhabits 

747,610 
475,327 

434,373 
340,120 
393,751 
319,728 
237,946 
240,073 
184,139 
141,885 
85,539 
82,548 
73,677 
68,825 
59,094 

36,691 

nts. 

Massachusetts,  ) 
with  Maine    y  ' 
Pennsylvania  
New  York  

North  Carolina  ... 
Maryland 

Connecticut  

South  Carolina  .  .  . 
New  Jersey 

New  Hampshire.. 
Vermont  

Georgia  

Kentucky 

Rhode  Island  
Delaware  

Territory    south  ? 
of  the  Ohio  .  .  $ 
Northwest  Territor 

'    Totals  |814,396|802,077|  1,536,638|59,481|697,697  (3,921,326 

The  smallness  of  the  House  of  Representatives  had 
furnished  one  great  topic  of  complaint  to  the  opponents 
of  the  Federal  Constitution  ;  yet  to  increase  the  num- 
ber would  increase  the  expense,  and  the  expense  of  the 
new  system  had  also  been  a  great  matter  of  complaint 
with  the  party  in  opposition.  It  was  resolved,  however, 
to  make  the  number  as  large  as  possible  by  adopting  a 
ratio  of  thirty  thousand,  the  lowest  which  the  Constitu- 
tion admitted.  As  the  bill  first  passed  the  House,  a  dis-  Nor.  24 
tribution  was  agreed  upon,  giving  a  total  of  one  hundred 


302  HISTORY    OJ    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  and  thirteen  members,  but  leaving  large  unrepresented 
_____  fractions  in  several  of  the  Northern  States.  The  Senate 
1791.  sent  back  this  bill  so  amended  as  to  raise  the  ratio  to 
Oec.  7.  thirty-three  thousand,  with  the  avowed  intention  of  di- 
minishing the  fractions.  In  the  House,  Williamson  com- 
plained that  if  this  amendment  decreased  the  fractions  in 
the  Northern  States,  it  increased  those  of  the  South  ;  to 
which  Sedgwick  answered,  that  the  ratio  proposed  by  the 
Senate  would  produce  smaller  fractions  than  any  other 
number,  from  thirty  to  forty  thousand  inclusive,  and  that 
the  fraction  of  only  one  state  was  increased  by  it.  Bou- 
dinot  adverted  to  the  advantage  possessed  by  the  South- 
ern States  in  the  representation  allowed  them  by  reason 
of  their  slaves.  He  would  not  interfere  with  the  Con- 
stitution on  that  point,  but  every  dictate  of  justice  and 
equality  was  opposed  to  giving  any  additional  advantage 
to  the  South.  Hillhouse  and  Ames  complained  of  the 
unequal  operation  on  the  small  states  of  the  ratio  origin- 
ally proposed  by  the  House,  under  which  Virginia  had 
as  many  representatives  as  six  smaller  states,  which,  to- 
gether, exceeded  her  in  federal  population  to  the  amount 
of  seventy  thousand,  while  the  five  larger  states  acquired 
between  them  seven  representatives  beyond  their  fair 
proportion.  Giles,  with  Venable,  the  new  member  from 
Virginia,  replied,  that,  taking  both  houses  together,  the 
smaller  states  had  a  very  great  preponderance  in  their 
favor.  The  House  refused  to  accede  to  the  amendment 
of  the  Senate ;  but  the  Senate  insisted  upon  it  by  the 
casting  vote  of  the  vice-president,  and,  as  the  House  de- 
clined to  recede,  the  bill  by  this  disagreement  was  lost. 

A  second  bill  passed  by  the  House  adopted  the  same 
ratio  of  thirty  thousand,  and  provided  for  a  new  census 
and  a  new  distribution  previous  to  the  termination  of  the 
next  following  Congress.  The  Senate  struck  out  all 


APPORTIONMENTOF    REPRESENTATIVES.     3Q3 

Chat  part  relating  to  a  new  census,  and  increased  the  CHAPTER 

whole  number   of  representatives  to  one  hundred  and 

twenty,  by  allowing  a  representation  to  the  larger  frac-  1791 
tions.  The  same  idea  had  been  suggested  in  the  House  ; 
but  Madison  had  opposed  it  as  unconstitutional,  on  the 
ground  that  the  restriction  of  one  representative  to  thirty 
thousand  inhabitants  was  intended  to  apply  to  the  states 
individually,  and  not  to  the  total  number  of  inhabitants. 

After  a  very  warm  debate  in  the  House,  in  which 
threats  of  dissolving  the  Union  were  freely  uttered,  the 
amendment  of  the  Senate  was  disagreed  to,  thirty-one  1792. 
to  thirty,  and  a  Committee  of  Conference  was  asked.March  23 
This  conference  produced  no  result,  and  the  Senate  still 
insisting  on  their  amendment,  the  House  finally  agreed 
to  it,  thirty-one  to  twenty-nine — a  vote  almost  entirely 
geographical,  the  North   in   favor  of  concurrence,  the 
South  against  it. 

The  bill  having  been  sent  to  the  president,  he  took 
the  opinions  of  his  cabinet  as  to  its  constitutionality. 
Jefferson  and  Randolph  thought  it  decidedly  unconstitu- 
tional. Hamilton  and  Knox  thought  that  matter  rather 
doubtful,  but,  on  the  whole,  advised  to  sign  the  bill. 
With  some  hesitation,  lest  he  might  appear  to  be  acting 
under  sectional  influence,  Washington  sent  back  the  bill 
with  objections  to  it,  based  on  the  ground  of  its  uncon- 
stitutionally ;  and,  upon  reconsideration,  it  was  lost, 
thirty-three  votes  against  it  to  twenty-eight  for  it.  April  5. 

A  third  bill  was  then  introduced,  which  speedily  passed 
both  houses,  conforming  to  the  original  proposition  of  the 
Senate  for  a  ratio  of  thirty-three  thousand,  thus  giving 
a  house  of  a  hundred  and  five  members.  At  the  return 
of  every  succeeding  ten  years  during  the  next  half  cen- 
tury the  precise  ratio  of  representation  became  a  matter 
of  warm  discussion,  it  being  scarcely  possible  to  fix  on 


304  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTKR  any  number  which  did  not  operate  unequally  on  some 

states.     At  the  end  of  that  period  the  former  decision  on 

1792.  the  constitutional  point  was  set  aside,  and  the  policy  was 
adopted  of  allowing  representatives  to  the  larger  fractions. 
In  the  act  providing  for  the  census  of  1850,  an  obvious 
and  simple  expedient  was  hit  upon  for  preventing  a  rep- 
etition of  these  tedious  and  unprofitable  contests,  the 
number  of  the  House  being  fixed  beforehand,  and  the  ra- 
tio thus  made  dependent  upon  that. 

The  news  of  the  defeat  of  St.  Clair  by  the  Indians 
produced  so  much  alarm  on  the  western  frontier,  that 
the  Legislatures  of  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia  made  pro- 
vision for  raising  state  troops  for  immediate  defense.  A 
detailed  report  from  the  War  Department  on  the  state 
of  the  frontier,  and  the  origin  and  progress  of  the  Indian 
hostilities,  having  been  laid  before  Congress,  a  bill  was 
Jac  ai.  introduced  in  accordance  with  its  recommendations,  and 
presently  passed  (though  not  without  serious  opposition 
from  several  Northern  members,  who  generally  support- 
ed the  views  of  the  administration),  for  completing  the 
two  existing  regiments  to  nine  hundred  and  sixty  men 
each,  and  adding  three  others  of  equal  strength — the  ad- 
ditional regiments  to  be  disbanded,  however,  at  the  con- 
clusion of  the  Indian  war.  The  battalion  of  artillery 
was  to  be  recruited  to  its  full  establishment,  and  one 
of  the  new  regiments  was  to  include  a  battalion  of 
dragoons,  the  president  being  authorized  to  call  into 
temporary  service  such  additional  cavalry  as  might  be 
found  necessary.  This  would  give  an  army  of  five 
thousand  men  and  more,  to  be  commanded  by  a  major 
general  and  four  brigadier  generals,  provision  being  made 
by  the  bill  for  three  additional  brigadiers.  St.  Clair 
having  resigned,  Washington  was  disposed  to  give  the 
jcbief  command  to  Henry  Lee,  distinguished  as  a  parti- 


INCREASE    OF    THE    ARM \ 

san  officer  in  the   Southern  carnpaigns  under  Greene,  CHAPTEH 

and  lately  elected  governor  of  Virginia.      But  as  there 

threatened  to  be  difficulty  in  persuading  some  of  those  1792 
destined  for  inferior  commands  to  serve  under  one  who 
had  been  their  junior  in  the  Revolutionary  arrny,  Wash- 
ington finally  selected  as  major  general,  Wayne,  just 
ousted  from  his  seat  in  the  House.  This  appointment, 
like  most  other  acts  of  the  government,  was  very  un- 
popular in  Virginia,  but,  as  in  many  other  things  which 
Virginia  disapproved,  the  result  proved  the  soundness  of 
Washington's  judgment.  While  he  yet  retained  his 
seat,  Wayne  had  succeeded  in  getting  through  Congress 
a  bill  for  the  relief  of  Greene's  family  from  the  pecunia- 
ry responsibilities  to  which  that  general  had  subjected 
himself  through  his  anxiety  to  uphold  the  commissary's 
department  of  the  Southern  army — a  bill  which  did  not 
pass  without  strong  objections  from  Sumter,  who  took 
great  offense  at  some  extracts  from  Greene's  letters, 
contained  in  Gordon's  recently  published  History  of 
the  American  War,  not  quite  complimentary  enough,  as 
Sumter  thought,  to  the  South  Carolina  militia.  The 
places  of  first  and  second  brigadiers,  declined  by  Morgan 
and  Wlllett,  were  given  to  Otho  H.  Williams  and  Rufus 
Putnam,  among  the  junior  brigadiers  of  the  Revolutionary 
army.  Willett  seemed  to  have  scruples  about  the  jus- 
tice of  the  war.  "  The  intercourse  I  have  had  with 
these  people,"  he  wrote,  "  and  the  treatment  which  I 
have  myself  received  from  them,  and  which  I  have 
known  others  to  receive,  makes  me  an  advocate  for 
them.  The  honor  of  fighting  and  beating  Indians  is  what 
I  do  not  aspire  after."  The  other  two  brigadiers  were 
Brooks,  of  Massachusetts,  who  had  commanded  a  regi- 
ment during  the  late  war,  and  Wilkinson,  late  com- 
mandant of  the  second  regiment.  A«  this  last  appoint* 
IV  -U 


306  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNFTED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  ment  was  made  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  imputst 
tions  against  Wilkinson,  of  having  been  concerned  in 
1792.  intrigues  with  the  Spanish  at  New  Orleans  for  the  sep- 
aration of  Kentucky  from  the  Union,  those  imputations, 
it  is  probable,  could  not  have  made  much  impression  on 
Washington's  mind. 

The  subject  of  St.  Glair's  defeat  was  referred,  toward 
the  end  of  the  session,  to  a  special  committee,  with  pow- 
er to  send  for  persons  and  papers.  A  call  by  this  com- 
mittee upon  the  War  Department  for  all  the  papers  re- 
lating to  the  expedition  first  raised  the  question  of  the 
extent  of  the  authority  of  the  House  in  such  matters. 
It  was  unanimously  agreed  by  the  cabinet  that  the  House 
had  no  power  to  call  on  the  head  of  any  department  for 
any  public  paper,  except  through  the  president,  in  whose 
discretion  it  rested  to  furnish  such  papers  as  the  public 
good  might  seem  to  require  and  admit ;  and  that  all  such 
calls  must  be  made  by  special  resolution  of  the  House, 
the  power  to  make  them  being  an  authority  which  could 
not  be  delegated  to  any  committee.  Such  was  the  origin 
of  the  form  of  proceeding,  ever  since  in  use,  in  calling 
upon  the  president  for  public  papers. 

To  support  the  increased  army,  an  additional  revenuo 
would  be  needed  to  the  amount  of  $673,500.  The  re- 
sistance encountered  by  a  motion  to  call  upon  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury  to  report  the  ways  and  means  of 
meeting  this  additional  expense  made  it  sufficiently  evi- 
dent that  the  distrust  of  that  officer  felt  by  Jefferson  was 
shared  by  a  considerable  party  in  the  House.  Hamilton's 
report  suggested  three  ways  of  raising  the  money:  a  sale 
of  the  bank  stock  belonging  to  the  government,  a  loan,  or 
additional  taxes.  He  objected  to  the  sale  of  the  bank 
stock,  especially  as  it  was  every  day  rising  in  value,  ana 
if  sold  at  all,  he  thought  th*»  proceeds  should  be  applied 


THIRD    TARIFF.  307 

to  the  reduction  of  the  public  debt.      As  the  extinction  CHAPTER 

IV. 

of  that  debt  ought  to  je  a  leading  object,  he  was  decid- 

edly  opposed  to  increasing  it  by  a  loan.  Perhaps  Hamil-  1792. 
ton  had  in  his  eye  the  charges  urged  against  him  in 
Freneau's  Gazette,  that  it  was  part  of  his  policy  to  saddle 
the  nation  with  a  debt  never  intended  to  be  discharged^ 
and  that  the  limitations  as  to  redemption  had  been  in- 
serted into  the  Funding  Act  with  that  very  object.  Tax- 
ation remaining  as  the  only  resource,  an  increase  in  the 
duties  on  imports  was  considered  the  kind  of  tax  best 
adapted  to  the  present  occasion.  Such  constant  additions 
to  the  burdens  of  commerce,  and  such  frequent  changes 
in  the  rate  of  duties,  were  indeed  to  be  regretted  ;  but  he 
consoled  himself  with  the  reflection  that  the  improved 
state  of  public  credit  gave  increased  facilities  to  the  mer- 
chants, and  by  the  hope  that  the  additional  duties  might 
give  a  new  impulse  to  the  spirit  of  manufacturing  already 
extensively  prevalent,  and  thus  essentially  serve  to  pro- 
mote the  industry,  wealth,  and  substantial  independence 
of  the  country.  In  conformity  with  a  resolution  of  the 
preceding  Congress,  Hamilton  had  already,  earlier  in  the 
session,  presented  an  elaborate  report  on  the  policy  of 
protecting  domestic  manufactures,  with  an  answer  to  the 
objections  made  against  it — a  summary  of  the  argument 
on  that  side  of  the  question  to  which  subsequent  discus- 
sions have  added  but  little. 

In  substantial  conformity  to  Hamilton's  recommenda- 
tions, a  new  tariff  act  fixed  the  rate  of  duty  on  Canary, 
Port,  Lisbon,  St.  Lucar,  Sherry,  and  Madeira  wines  at 
from  twenty  to  fifty-six  cents  per  gallon,  all  other  wines 
to  pay  forty  per  cent,  on  the  value.  Spirits  distilled 
from  grain  were  to  pay  from  twenty-eight  to  fifty  cents, 
and  all  other  distilled  spirits  from  twenty-five  to  forty-six 
cents,  according  to  proof ;  beer,  ale,  and  porter,  eight  cents 


HISTORY   Or  THE  UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  per  gallon  :   cocoa,  two  centf  per  pound  ;   chocolate,  three 
_  cents;  hemp  and  steel,  one  dollar  per  hundred  weight;  ca- 

J  702.  bles  and  tarred  cordage,  one  dollar  and  eighty  cents  ;  un- 
tarred  cordage,  two  dollars  and  twenty-five  cents ;  twine 
and  pack-thread,  four  dollars ;  Glauber's  salts,  two  dol- 
lars the  hundred  weight ;  coal,  four  cents  and  a  half  per 
bushel ;  playing-cards,  twenty-five  cents  per  pack  ;  shoes 
and  slippers,  from  seven  to  twenty  cents  per  pair.  The 
following  were  added  to  the  list  of  articles  paying  fifteen 
per  cent,  on  the  value  :  China-ware,  glass  of  all  kinds, 
except  black  quart  bottles ;  muskets,  pistols,  and  other  fire- 
arms ;  swords,  cutlasses,  and  other  side-arms  :  hair-pow- 
der, glue,  wafers,  painters'  colors,  laces,  tassels,  and  trim- 
mings. To  the  list  of  articles  paying  ten  per  cent,  on 
the  value  were  added,  cast,  slit,  and  rolled  iron,  and  all 
manufactures  of  iron,  steel,  copper,  tin,  brass,  and  pew- 
ter, except  wire ;  cabinet-wares,  leather,  and  all  manu- 
factures of  leather  ;  drugs,  except  dye-stuffs ;  carpetings, 
mats,  and  floor-cloths ;  hats,  caps,  bonnets,  gloves,  stock- 
ings, millinery,  artificial  flowers,  feathers,  and  other  or- 
naments for  female  dresses  ;  fans,  toys,  dolls,  buttons; 
powders,  pastes,  balsams,  ointments,  perfumes,  and  cos- 
metics. All  articles  charged  in  the  former  tariff  with 
five  per  cent,  on  the  value,  were  to  pay  for  two  years  an 
additional  duty  of  two  and  a  half  per  cent.  To  the  list 
of  free  articles  were  added,  copper  in  pigs  and  bars,  un- 
manufactured wool,  woad,  and  sulphur.  Salt  was  here- 
after to  be  reckoned  at  fifty-six  pounds  to  the  bushel,  and 
the  credit  on  the  duty  was  extended  to  nine  months. 
On  all  articles  except  West  India  goods,  wines,  and  teas, 
as  to  which  the  previous  provisions  remained  in  force, 
the  duties  might  be  paid  in  four  installments,  one  half 
the  amount  in  six  months,  one  quarter  in  nine,  and  the 
other  quar*3r  in  twelve  months.  The  president  was 


THIRD    TARIFF.    FISHING    BOUNTIES 

authorized  to  anticipate  tte  receipt  of  the  new  duties  by  CHAPTES 
a  temporary  loan  from  the  bank.  _ — , 

The  great  object  of  this  new  tariff  was  revenue ;  1792. 
yet,  in  selecting  the  particular  subjects  for  increased 
taxation,  an  eye  was  evidently  had  throughout  to  the 
protection  of  American  industry.  The  increased  du- 
ties on  hemp  and  cordage,  opposed  by  some  of  the  mer- 
cantile representatives  as  injurious  to  the  navigating  in- 
terest, were  defended  by  Madison  and  others  as  affording 
protection  at  once  to  manufactures  and  to  agriculture. 
In  the  bill  as  originally  reported,  cotton  had  been  added 
to  the  list  of  free  articles,  a  provision  supported  by  Ames 
and  some  of  the  Pennsylvania  members  on  the  ground 
that  this  article  was  needed  by  the  manufacturers,  and 
could  only  be  obtained  from  abroad.  But  the  old  duty  of 
three  cents  a  pound  was  retained  on  the  representations 
of  Macon,  Page,  and  others,  as  to  the  abundant  produce 
and  excellent  quality  of  the  Southern  cotton,  for  which, 
as  they  alleged,  no  market  could  be  found. 

At  the  same  time  with  the  increase  of  duties  on  im- 
ported spirits,  alterations  were  made,  at  Hamilton's  sug- 
gestion, in  hopes  of  rendering  the  Excise  Act  more  ac- 
ceptable to  those  upon  whom  its  first  operation  bore. 
The  duties  were  diminished  from  one  to  seven  cents  per 
gallon,  according  to  the  strength  and  material — the  high- 
est duty  being  fixed  at  twenty-five  cents,  and  the  lowest 
at  seven  cents  per  gallon.  Additional  facilities  were  also 
allowed  to  the  small  country  distillers,  who  were  permit- 
ted  to  pay  a  monthly  instead  of  a  yearly  rate  upon  the 
capacity  of  their  stills,  and  to  take  out  licenses  for  any 
periods  they  chose. 

Another  bill,  introduced  into  the  Senate  by  Cabot, 
re-established  the  old  system  of  bounties,  to  which  the 
fishermen .  had  been  accustomed  under  the  British  gov» 


310  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES4. 

CHAPTER  ernment.      All  vessels   employed  for  the  term   of  four 

IV. 

'  months,  at  least,  in  each  year  in  the  Bank  and  other  cod- 
1792.  fisheries,  were  entitled  to  a  bounty  varying  from  one  dol- 
lar to  two  dollars  and  a  half  per  ton,  according  to  their 
size,  three  eighths  to  go  to  the  owners,  and  five  eighths 
to  the  fishermen.  This  provision  did  not  impose  any 
new  burden  on  the  treasury,  being  only  a  substitute  for 
the  drawback  of  duties  on  the  salt  employed  in  curing 
the  fish — a  change  agreeable  to  the  fishermen  and  their 
immediate  employers,  who  flattered  themselves  that  this 
drawback  would  now  come  to  them  instead  of  going  into 
the  pockets  of  the  exporting  merchants.  In  this  there 
.was,  no  doubt,  much  of  deception,  since  the  exporters 
would  now  pay  so  much  less  for  the  fish.  The  national 
benefit  of  the  fisheries  as  a  nursery  for  seamen  was  urged 
as  the  chief  argument  for  adopting  the  system  of  boun- 
ties. 

The  pressure  of  the  Indian  war  forced  Congress  to 
undertake  an  organization  of  the  militia — a  very  difficult 
subject,  as  well  on  account  of  the  conflicting  claims  as 
to  authority  on  the  part  of  the  states  and  the  general 
government,  as  by  reason  of  obstacles  to  be  encountered 
in  establishing  any  system  that  should  produce  an  effect- 
ive force.  The  act,  as  passed,  still  remains,  in  spite  of 
numerous  attempts  to  amend  it,  the  basis  of  the  militia 
system  of  the  United  States,  though  very  much  modified 
as  to  its  local  operation  by  state  laws  on  the  same  sub- 
ject. It  provided  for  a  geographical  arrangement  of  the 
militia  by  the  state  Legislatures  into  companies,  battal- 
ions, regiments,  brigades,  and  divisions ;  each  company 
to  consist  of  sixty-four  men,  each  battalion  of  five  com- 
panies, each  regiment  of  two  battalions,  and  each  brigade 
of  four  regiments.  There  were  to  be  a  captain,  lieuten- 
ant, and  ensign  for  each  company,  a  major  for  each  bat- 


MILITIA    SYSTEM.  81  ] 

talion,  a  lieutenant-colonel  commandant  for   each  regi-  CHAPTEE 

IV. 

ment,  a  brigadier  general  for  each  brigade,  and  a  major 
general  for  each  division.  The  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel  1792. 
commandant,  to  the  exclusion  of  colonels,  had  been  in- 
troduced into  the  Revolutionary  army  for  the  avoidance 
of  certain  questions  as  to  rank  by  which  the  exchange 
of  prisoners  had  been  embarrassed — a  temporary  arrange- 
ment long  perpetuated,  as  well  in  the  regular  army  as  in 
the  militia.  In  both  services,  however,  the  rank  of  colo- 
nel has  been  re-established.  There  was  to  be  one  compa- 
ny of  light  troops  to  each  battalion,  and  at  least  one  com- 
pany of  artillery  and  one  of  horse  to  each  division,  to  be 
formed  out  of  volunteers,  and  to  be  clad  in  uniform  at 
their  own  expense.  For  the  general  superintendence  of 
the  whole  system,  each  state  was  to  appoint  an  adjutant 
general. 

Every  able-bodied  free  white  citizen  within  the  ages 
of  eighteen  and  forty-five,  with  certain  exceptions,  to 
which  the  states  were  at  liberty  to  add,  was  to  be  enrolled 
in  the  militia  by  the  captain  of  the  company  in  whose 
bounds  he  might  reside,  and,  on  notice  of  his  enrollment, 
was  required  to  arm  and  equip  himself,  and  to  come  forth 
so  armed  and  equipped  when  called  out  to  exercise  or 
into  service.  As  the  amount  of  training  to  be  required 
was  left  entirely  at  the  discretion  of  the  states,  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  whole  system  rested  with  them,  and  in 
different  states  was  very  different.  This  militia  law,  in 
fact,  did  nothing  more  than  to  adopt  the  system  as  it 
stood  in  each  state,  with  some  provisions  merely  for  uni- 
formity of  organization. 

Another  act  authorized  the  president,  in  case  of  inva- 
sion by  any  foreign  nation  or  Indian  tribe,  or  imminent 
danger  thereof,  or  in  case  of  insurrection  in  any  state, 
application  being  made  by  its  Legislature  or  its  execu- 


312  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CLAPTI;R  tive.  to  call  forth  the  militia  of  the  state  or  states  most 

IV. 

convenient  to  the  scene  of  action,  by  orders  issued  tf> 

1792.  any  militia  officers  at  his  discretion,  and  in  such  num- 
bers as  he  might  judge  necessary.  A  similar  power  was 
also  given,  in  case  of  combinations  to  resist  the  laws  of 
the  United  States,  too  strong  to  be  suppressed  by  the 
ordinary  course  of  justice,  such  fact  being  first  certified 
by  the  federal  judge  for  the  district,  or  by  one  of  the 
judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  This 
provision  for  enforcing  the  laws  of  the  United  States  was 
very  warmly  opposed  by  Page.  Mild  and  equitable  laws, 
such  was  his  argument,  never  would  be  resisted ;  and, 
if  laws  were  resisted,  that  alone  was  proof  enough  that 
they  ought  to  be  repealed.  The  act  was  limited  to  two 
years,  but  its  provisions,  slightly  modified,  were  subse- 
quently re-enacted,  and  still  continue  in  force.  One 
inducement  to  the  passage  of  this  act  was  the  state  of 
things  in  Western  Pennsylvania,  where  the  opposition  to 
the  excise  laws  was  very  violent,  and  even  threatened 
to  prove  too  strong  for  the  civil  authority.  The  hope  of 
appeasing  that  opposition,  which  existed  also,  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  in  North  Carolina,  had  led  to  the  modifica- 
tions in  the  Excise  Act  already  noticed,  and  intended  to 
remove  all  reasonable  grounds  of  complaint. 

Upon  a  bill  for  the  organization  of  the  post-office  sys- 
tem, the  same  difference  of  opinion  arose  which  had  de- 
feated any  organization  of  that  department  by  the  pre- 
ceding Congress.  The  propriety  of  vesting  in  the  presi- 
dent, or  the  postmaster  general,  authority  to  designate 
and  establish  post-roads,  was  urged  on  the  ground  of  the 
better  knowledge  of  the  subject  likely  to  be  possessed  by 
an  officer  whose  whole  attention  was  devoted  to  it,  and 
free  from  those  local  influences  to  which  members  of  Con- 
gress might  be  subjected.  But  in  the  act  as  passed,  this 


POST-OFFICE    ESTABLISHMENT.  313 

authority  was  reserved  to  Congress.    A  power,  however,  CHAPTER 
by  way  of  compromise,  was  vested  in  the  postmaster  . 

general  to  establish  cross  post-routes,  the  contractors  un-  1792. 
dertaking  to  carry  the  mail  for  the  postage.  The  post- 
master general  was  also  authorized  to  appoint  his  assist- 
ants and  all  deputy  postmasters,  and,  after  advertising  for 
proposals,  to  make  contracts  for  carrying  the  mail  by 
stage-coaches  or  on  horseback,  as  he  might  judge  con- 
venient ;  but  the  whole  expenses  of  the  department  were 
to  be  paid  out  of  the  income.  The  postmaster  general 
was  to  settle  quarterly  with  his  deputies,  and  himself  as 
often  with  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  The  postage 
was  fixed  at  rates  varying  from  six  cents  for  distances  of 
thirty  miles  or  less,  to  twenty-five  cents  for  distances  of 
four  hundred  and  fifty  miles  or  over,  with  like  amounts 
for  each  inclosure :  rates  persevered  in  for  more  than  fifty 
years,  till  the  danger  of  private  competition  led  to  more 
moderate  charges.  Newspapers  were  to  pay  one  cent 
each  for  every  hundred  miles  or  less,  and  a  cent  and  a 
half  for  greater  distances.  The  franking  privilege  was 
given  to  members  of  Congress  during  the  session  and 
twenty  days  afterward  ;  also  to  the  principal  executive 
officers.  Wadsworth  attempted  to  strike  out  this  pro- 
vision, but  without  success.  Robbery  of  the  mail,  or 
embezzlement  by  any  officer  of  the  post  of  letters  con- 
taining money  or  valuable  papers,  was  made  a  sapital  of- 
fense ;  the  opening,  obtaining,  or  destroying  other  letters 
was  made  punishable  by  a  fine  of  three  thousand  dollars 
and  six  months'  imprisonment. 

The  salary  of  the  postmaster  general  was  fixed  at 
$2000.  That  office,  upon  the  resignation  of  Osgood, 
had.  lately  been  conferred  on  Timothy  Pickering.  The 
deputy  postmasters  were  to  be  paid  as  heretofore,  by  a 
commission  on  their  receipts ;  but  none  were  to  receive 


314  HISTORYOF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  more  than  $1800.  Though  considered  at  first  as  an 
inferior  office,  not  entitling  the  holder  to  a  seat  in  the 
1792  cabinet,  the  extent  to  which  its  patronage  has  reached 
has  since  made  the  station  of  postmaster  general,  in 
the  eyes  of  politicians  at  least,  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant posts  in  the  government.  Perhaps  it  was  a  per- 
ception of  the  influence  thus  to  be  exerted  that  made 
Jefferson  so  urgent  with  the  president  that  the  general 
superintendence  of  the  post-office  should  be  annexed  to 
his  department  rather  than  to  Hamilton's  ;  a  request 
which  he  backed  with  the  suggestion  that  the  treasury 
department  possessed  already  such  an  influence  as  to 
swallow  up  the  whole  executive  powers,  and  to  threaten 
to  overshadow  even  the  office  of  president. 

A  resolution  of  the  first  Congress  had  authorized  the 
president  to  engage  artists  and  procure  apparatus  as 
preliminary  steps  toward  the  establishment  of  a  mint. 
By  an  act  of  the  present  session  the  mint  was  formally 
established,  the  officers  to  be  a  Director- — an  appoint- 
ment presently  bestowed  on  the  ingenious  Rittenhouse — 
an  Assayer,  Chief  Coiner,  Engraver,  and  Treasurer,  with 
salaries  from  $2000  to  $1200  each.  The  president  was 
authorized  to  procure,  at  the  seat  of  government,  build- 
ings suitable  for  the  purpose.  All  bullion  brought  to  the 
mint  was  to  be  coined  gratuitously ;  but  when  coin  was 
delivered  in  exchange  on  the  spot,  one  half  of  one  per 
cent,  was  to  be  deducted.  The  provisions  of  the  ordi- 
nance of  the  Continental  Congress  on  the  subject  of  coins 
were  re-enacted.  These  coins  were  the  eagle,  half  eagle, 
and  quarter  eagle,  in  gold;  the  dollar,  half  dollar,  quar- 
ter dollar,  dime,  and  half  dime,  in  silver ;  the  cent  and 
half  cent  in  copper.  The  ratio  of  gold  to  silver,  that  of 
one  to  fifteen,  established  by  this  act,  being  a  decided 
under- valuation  of  gold,  long  prevented  the  gold  coinage 


MINT-COINAGE  315 

from  getting  into  circulation.      The  weight  of  the  eagle  CHAPTER 

was   to   be   270   grains,    that  of  the  dollar  416  grains , 

The  alloy  in  gold  coins,  a  mixture  of  silver  and  copper,  1«792 
was  to  be  one  part  in  twelve ;  that  of  the  silver  coins,  179 
parts  in  1485,  or  about  one  in  eight  and  three  tenths. 
To  obviate  the  inconvenience  growing  out  of  the  copper 
coins  emitted  by  the  states,  and  which  would  not  pass 
except  in  the  states  emitting  them,  an  immediate  coin- 
age of  a  hundred  and  fifty  tons  of  copper  was  ordered 
by  a  separate  act. 

Touching  the  device  to  be  placed  on  these  coins  a 
curious  debate  arose,  sufficiently  characteristic,  as  tend- 
ing to  show  upon  what  small  matters  the  jealousy  of  the 
republican  or  opposition  party  was  ready  to  fasten  ;  but 
indicative  also  of  a  state  of  mind  very  widely  diffused 
throughout  the  country  As  the  bill  came  from  the 
Senate,  where  it  originated,  on  one  side  of  the  gold  and 
silver  coins  was  to  be  the  eagle — adopted  by  the  Conti- 
nental Congress,  and  still  continued  as  the  national  em- 
blem' or  seal-^— with  the  legend,  "  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica." To  this  there  was  no  objection.  In  accordance 
with  a  usage  sufficiently  common,  from  the  days  of  the 
earliest  known  coinage,  the  Senate's  bill  proposed  for  the 
reverse  u  an  impression  or  representation  of  the  head  of  , 
the  President  of  the  United  States  for  the  time  being," 
with  his  name  and  order  of  succession  in  the  presiden- 
cy, and  the  date  of  the  coinage.  This  proposal  seemed 
to  some,  like  the  president's  speeches  to  Congress,  his 
levees,  and  the  proposition  formerly  made  to  give  him 
the  title  of  Highness,  a  very  alarming  step  toward  mon- 
archy. Key,  of  Maryland,  moved  to  substitute  for  the 
president's  head  "  an  emblematical  figure  of  Liberty,"  a 
motion  seconded  by  Page,  who  suggested  that,  how  much 
soever  the  people  might  be  pleased  with  having  on  their 


316'  HISTORY    OF  THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  coins  the  head  of  the  great  man  now  president,   they 

'       might  have  less  occasion  to  be  satisfied  with  some  of  his 

1792*.  successors.     The  head  of  the  president  would  be  viewed 

as  the  stamp  of  royalty  on  our  coins,  would  wound  the 

feelings  of  many  friends,  and  gratify  our  enemies. 

The  importance  attached  to  this  matter  was  ridiculed 
by  Livermore,  who  declared  himself  utterly  unable  to 
comprehend  how  the  head  of  the  president  on  the  coin 
could  endanger  the  liberties  of  the  country.  Smith,  of 
South  Carolina,  thought  it  strange  that  the  passage  of 
the  bill  was  to  be  risked  on  so  trivial  a  circumstance,  and 
especially  that  the  objection  should  come  from  such  ad- 
mirers of  the  new  French  Constitution  as  the  gentlemen 
making  it  professed  to  be,  since  that  Constitution  ex- 
pressly provided  for  placing  the  head  of  the  chief  magis- 
trate on  the  coin.  Key's  motion,  however,  was  carried 
on  a  division,  twenty-six  to  twenty-two.  The  bill  com- 
ing up  on  its  third  reading,  Gerry  moved  to  reinstate 
the  clause  struck  out,  except  the  words  "  for  the  time 
being,"  so  as  to  make  it  applicable  to  Washington  alone  ; 
but  Sedgwick  pronounced  the  point  of  too  little  conse- 
quence to  be  debated,  and  the  bill  was  passed  as  amend- 
ed, and  sent  back  to  the  Senate.  They  very  soon  re- 
*  turned  it  with  a  refusal  to  concur,  whereupon  Liver- 
more  moved  to  recede.  The  present  occasion,  he  thought, 
offered  the  best  opportunity  to  do  honor  to  the  man  whom 
all  loved,  instead  of  which  it  was  proposed  to  insult  him. 
At  the  same  time  that  a  project  was  on  foot — he  al- 
luded to  a  proposal  lately  made  to  Congress  by  an  Italian 
artist,  and  patronized  by  several  Southern  members  —  to 
erect  a  monument  in  honor  of  the  president  at  an  ex- 
pense of  a  quarter  million  of  dollars,  why  object  to  an 
honor  more  effectual,  without  any  expense,  or  tho  shadow 
of  flattery,  and  every  way  safe  and  satisfactory  fi  It  was 


DEVICE    FOK    THE    COIN.  3^7 

proposed  to  substitute  "  an  emblematica.  figure  of  Liber-  CHAPTKH 
ty,"  but  how  agree  upon  that  emblem  ?     Liberty,  in  his        ... 
idea  of  it,  was  that  which  arose  from  law  and  justice,  and  1792 
which   secured   every  man   in  his  individual  and  social 
rights.      Others,  perhaps,  had  in  their  minds  something 
little  better  than  the  liberty  of  savages,  the  relinquish- 
ment  of  all  law  that  contradicted  or  thwarted  their  pas- 
sions and  desires.     Some  gentlemen  might  think  a  bear 
broke  loose  from  his  chains  a  fit  emblem  of  liberty ;  oth- 
ers might  prefer  a  different  device.      He  could  hardly 
conceive  of  any  adapted  to  the  case  of  these  states,  which 
justly  boasted  of  having  always  been  free.     He  thought 
the  head  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  quite  as 
good  an  emblem  of  liberty  as  any  other. 

Mercer,  of  Maryland,  replied  with  a  good  deal  of  as- 
perity. There  was  a  rule  in  the  British  House  of  Com- 
mons that  the  name  of  the  king  should  never  be  men- 
tioned in  any  debate,  and  he  thought  that  some  such 
rule  might  be  advantageously  adopted  by  this  house. 
It  would  be  no  honor  to  the  president  to  pay  him  a  com- 
pliment which  might  be  shared  by  persons  no  better  than 
Nero,  Caligula,  or  Heliogabalus.  Seney,  one  of  Mer- 
cer's colleagues,  reflected  severely  on  the  Senate  for  hav- 
ing rejected  the  amendment  without  taking  time  to  de- 
liberate on  the  reasons  in  its  favor.  Giles  thought  this 
proposition  to  place  the  president's  head  on  the  coin,  very 
much  of  a  piece  with  the  first  act  of  the  Senate.  "  It 
had  a  very  near  affinity  to  titles,  that  darling  child  of 
the  other  branch  of  the  Legislature,  put  out  at  nurse  for 
the  present,  but  intended  to  be  recognized  hereafter  with 
all  due  form."  Benson  ridiculed  the  idea  of  the  people 
being  enslaved  by  their  presidents,  or,  what  was  still  less 
likely,  by  the  president's  image  on  the  coin.  Page,  in 
reply,  was  very  sorry  that  some  men  ridiculed  republican 


318  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  caution.      It  was  the  duty  of  members  to  watch  over  the 

IV 

liberties  of  the  country,  and  they  ought  not  to  be  treated 
1792  with  levity  for  doing  so.  It  was  as  a  watchman  for 
liberty  that  he  warned  his  constituents  of  the  danger  of 
imitating  the  almost  idolatrous  practice  of  monarchies 
as  to  the  honor  paid  to  kings,  by  impressing  their  images 
and  names  on  the  current  coin.  He  wished  to  add  a» 
few  incentives  as  possible  to  competition  for  the  presi- 
dent's place.  He  warned  the  country  against  the  cabals, 
the  corruption,  and  animosities  which  might  be  excited 
by  the  intrigues  of  ambitious  men,  animated  by  the  hope 
of  handing  down  their  names  to  the  latest  ages  on  the 
medals  of  their  country.  An  honor  so  indiscriminate 
was  unworthy  of  the  president's  acceptance.  To  limit 
it  to  the  present  chief  magistrate  would  be  less  objec- 
tionable, but  the  Senate  knew  that  the  president's  deli- 
cacy would  not  permit  him  to  sign  such  a  bill,  which 
might,  indeed,  blast  his  reputation,  and  therefore  they 
had  extended  the  compliment  to  all  his  successors.  He 
was  a  friend  of  the  president,  and  had  shown  it  on  proper 
occasions.  The  country  was  under  obligations  to  him  : 
but  lovers  of  liberty  and  friends  to  the  rights  of  man 
would  be  cautious  of  the  ways  in  which  they  expressed 
their  sense  of  that  obligation. 

The  House  insisted  on  their  amendment,  and  the  Sen- 
ate yielded.  It  was  some  time,  however,  before  the  art- 
ists could  come  to  an  agreement  as  to  the  proper  em- 
blematical figure ;  and  Boudinot,  at  the  next  session,  at- 
tempted, though  without  success,  to  substitute  in  place 
of  it  the  head  of  Columbus. 

Some  allusions,  in  the  course  of  this  debate,  to  the 
new  French  Constitution,  in  which  the  incongruous  at- 
tempt had  been  made  to  combine  an  hereditary  chief  mag- 
istrate with  a  fcrm  of  government  in  all  other  respect*. 


JUDICIAL    PROCESS.  3^9 

essentially  democratic,  were  among  the  earliest  referen-  CHAPTEB 

ces  in  Congress  to  the  subject  of  French  politics.     It  was 

only  a  few  days  before  that  the  president  had  communi-  1792 
cated  to  Congress  a  letter  from  Louis  XVI.,  announcing 
his  signature  to  that  instrument,  and  its  having  thereby 
become  the  fundamental  law  of  the  French  nation.  All 
the  members  but  two  concurred  in  a  vote  expressing  the 
high  satisfaction  of  the  House  at  receiving  information 
of  this  important  event,  and  their  sincere  sympathy  in  the 
welfare  of  the  French  people.  But  when  it  came  to  com- 
plimenting the  "  wisdom  and  magnanimity"  displayed, 
as  well  in  the  formation  as  in  the  acceptance  of  the  new 
Constitution,  sixteen  members  demurred.  Of  these  six- 
teen, ten  were  from  New  England,  three  from  New  York, 
one  from  Pennsylvania,  and  two  from  South  Carolina. 

The  passage,  by  the  former  Congress,  of  a  permanent 
act  to  regulate  processes  issuing  from  the  courts  of  thd 
United  States,  had  been  prevented  by  a  difference  of 
opinion  as  to  the  proper  style  of  the  writs,  whether  they 
should  issue  in  the  name  of  the  president,  or,  conformably 
to  the  practice  of  the  states,  in  the  name  of  the  people  or 
of  the  commonwealth.  This  point  had  been  evaded  by 
the  passage  of  a  temporary  act,  by  which  the  form  of 
writs,  except  their  style,  for  which  no  provision  was  made, 
and  which  was  thus  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  court, 
was  to  conform  in  each  state  to  the  usage  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  that  state.  The  writs  framed  under  this  pro- 
vision had  been  made  to  issue  in  the  name  of  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  and  the  forms  adopted,  except 
their  style,  were  now  confirmed  by  law,  subject  to  such 
changes  as  the  Supreme  Court  might  order.  Any  direct 
approval  was  thus  avoided  of  the  monarchical  usage-— 
for  so  the  ultra  Republicans  esteemed  it — of  issuing  writs 
in  the  president's  name  :  a  usage,  however,  in  which  the 


320  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  courts  still  persist.      The  same  act  confirmed  and  sanc« 
,  tioned  the  adoption,  by  the  respective  district  and  cir^ 

1792.  cuit  courts,  in  actions  at  common  law,  of  the  method  of 
procedure  in  use  in  the  state  courts  of  each  respective 
district ;  but  a  discretion  was  given  to  the  Supreme  Court 
to  make  such  changes  as  they  might  judge  expedient. 
Subject  to  the  same  discretion  on  the  part  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  the  proceedings  in  equity  and  admiralty  cases  were 
to  be  "  according  to  the  principles,  rules,  and  usages 
which  belong  to  courts  of  equity  and  to  courts  of  admi- 
ralty respectively,  as  contradistinguished  from  courts  of 
law" — a  provision  construed  by  the  Supreme  Court  to 
authorize  the  adoption  of  the  forms  and  methods  of  the 
English  Courts  of  Chancery  and  Admiralty. 

The  resolution  of  the  first  Congress,  requesting  of  the 
states  the  use  of  their  jails  for  federal  purposes,  having 
been  generally  complied  with,  an  act  for  the  relief  of  per- 
sons imprisoned  for  debt  under  processes  from  the  courts 
of  the  United  States  extended  to  such  prisoners  the  same 
privileges,  as  to  jail  limits,  enjoyed  by  those  confined  in 
the  same  jails  under  state  authority.  Any  prisoner,  on 
taking  an  oath  of  poverty,  was  to  be  supported  at  the 
expense  of  the  creditor,  at  the  rate  of  one  dollar  weekly, 
otherwise  to  be  discharged,  his  person  to  be  thenceforth 
free,  but  his  property  to  continue  liable  for  the  debt. 

John  Rutledge  had  resigned  his  seat  on  the  bench  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  in  consequence  of  an  appointment  as 
Chief  Justice  of  South  Carolina.  The  place  had  been 
offered  first  to  Edward  Rutledge,  and  then  to  Charles  C. 
Pinckney ;  but  both  excused  themselves,  alleging  that 
they  could  be  more  useful  to  the  government  out  of  of- 
fice than  in  it.  Finally,  the;  vacant  seat  was  given  to 
Thomas  Johnson,  late  governor  of  Maryland,  and  an  early 
member  of  the  Continental  Congress,  it  having  been  on 


DIGNITY    OF    THE    COURTS    VINDICATED.        32] 

his  motion  that  Washington  had  been  appointed  com-  CHAPTER 

mander-in-chief ;   but  he  did  not  long  retain  it.  

An  act  on  the  subject  of  invalid  pensions,  by  the  nu-  1792 
merous  applications  for  which,  growing  out  of  casualties 
in  the  Revolutionary  war,  Congress  had  been  a  good  deal 
embarrassed,  gave  to  the  federal  courts  the  first  occasion 
to  vindicate,  as  against  the  legislature,  their  dignity  and 
rights.  This  act  directed  that  claimants  for  pensions 
should  exhibit  to  the  federal  circuit  court  of  their  respect- 
ive districts  the  evidence  of  their  claims ;  and  all  to  whom 
the  courts  granted  certificates  were  to  be  placed  on  the 
pension  list  by  the  Secretary  of  War,  unless  he  had  cause 
to  suspect  some  imposition  or  mistake,  in  which  case  he 
was  to  report  the  matter  to  Congress.  Applications  hav- 
ing been  made  under  this  act,  not  long  after  its  passage, 
to  the  Circuit  Court  for  the  District  of  New  York,  the 
judges,  Jay  being  one,  represented  to  the  president  that 
the  act,  so  far  as  related  to  them,  was  unconstitutional 
and  void,  because  Congress  had  no  right  to  impose  upon 
them  any  thing  but  purely  judicial  duties,  nor  to  give  to 
the  Secretary  of  War,  to  Congress,  nor  to  any  body  else 
a  revisory  power  over  their  proceedings.  At  the  same 
time  they  expressed  their  readiness,  acting,  not  as  judges, 
but  as  commissioners,  to  make  the  investigations  required. 
Similar  representations  were  made  by  the  circuit  courts 
of  Pennsylvania  and  North  Carolina.  To  bring  this  ques- 
tion to  a  solemn  decision,  the  Attorney  General  of  the 
United  States  finally  moved  in  the  Supreme  Court  for  a 
writ  of  mandamus  to  the  Circuit  Court  of  Pennsylvania, 
ordering  them  to  entertain  and  exercise,  as  judges,  the 
jurisdiction  imposed  by  the  Pension  Act.  An  argument 
was  had  on  this  application,  but  before  any  formal  deci- 
sion was  pronounced,  Congress  repealed  the  obnoxious 
law.  This,  however,  did  not  occur  till  the  next  session. 
TV.— X 


322  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER       Another  act  of  this  session,  of  which  most  of  the  pro 

IV. 

_  visions  still  remain  in  force,  regulated  the  authority  and 

1792.  duty  of  American  consuls  appointed  for  foreign  ports. 
They  were  to  receive  and  authenticate  all  protests  and 
declarations  made  before  them  by  American  citizens,  or  by 
foreigners  in  relation  to  any  American  citizen,  copies  of 
which,  under  their  seals,  were  to  have  the  same  validity 
as  the  originals.  They  were  to  take  possession  of  the 
property  of  all  American  citizens  dying  within  their  con- 
sulate, and  having  no  partner  or  legal  representatives;  to 
make  an  inventory  of  it,  with  the  assistance  of  two  mer- 
chants, Americans,  if  there  were  any  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, to  be  transmitted  to  the  Secretary  of  State ;  to 
convert  the  property  into  money  ;  to  collect  and  pay  the 
debts  due  to  and  from  the  deceased,  and  to  remit  the 
balance  to  the  treasury  of  the  United  States,  in  trust  for 
the  heirs.  In  case  of  the  stranding  of  any  American 
vessel  within  their  consulate,  they  were  to  take  all  proper 
steps,  at  the  expense  of  the  owners,  for  saving  both  ship 
and  cargo  ;  also  to  provide  for  and  send  home,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  United  States,  American  seamen  left  abroad. 
Except  at  the  Barbary  ports,  where  the  consuls  acted  as 
diplomatic  agents,  no  salaries  were  allowed,  but  only 
certain  fees,  in  some  cases  an  abundant,  in  others  a  very 
insufficient  compensation — a  system  still  adhered  to. 

Some  further  action  was  also  had  on  the  subject  of 
•  the  public  debt.  There  still  remained  outstanding  cer- 
tificates not  subscribed  to  the  new  loans  to  the  amount 
of  ten  millions  of  dollars.  Further  time  was  allowed  to 
the  holders  of  these  certificates  to  become  subscribers,  and 
provision  was  made  meanwhile  for  paying  the  interest. 
Provision  was  also  made  for  paying  off  in  frill,  both  prin- 
cipal and  interest,  the  certificates  held  by  the  foreign 
cfncers  who: had. served  in  the  Revolutionary  army.  An 


PETITION   OF    CONTINENTAL    OFFICERS.       323 

attempt  to  procure  a  further  assumption,  in  case  of  the  CHAPTEP 

more  deeply  indebted  states,  ^was  very  warmly  met  by 

Giles,  who  took  occasion  to  deliver  a  bitter  philippic  1792. 
against  the  whole  funding  system,  and  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  as  its  author — a  species  of  eloquence  for 
which  he  afterward  became  famous.  Madison  and  Find- 
ley,  on  behalf  of  the  states  of  Virginia  and  Pennsyl- 
vania, insisted  upon  extending  this  assumption,  if  made, 
to  that  part  of  the  state  debts  paid  off  since  the  peace, 
and  in  that  way  succeeded  in  defeating  the  proposition. 

Taking  up  the  suggestions  thrown  out  by  Madison  in 
the  debate  on  the  original  Funding  Act,  the  officers  of 
the  Massachusetts  Continental  line  had  drawn  up  a  me- 
morial to  Congress,  had  sent  on  Hull,  one  of  their  num- 
ber— afterward  very  unfortunately  distinguished — to  call 
attention  to  their  claims,  and  had  invited  the  officers  of 
the  other  Continental  lines  to  co-operate  in  the  same 
movement.  The  Massachusetts  petition  admitted  that 
the  first  two  armies,  those  which  served  in  the  cam- 
paigns of  1775  and  1776,  had  no  ground  of  complaint, 
because  in  their  time  there  was  no  depreciation.  It  was 
admitted,  also,  that  those  who  had  enlisted  in  1780  and 
afterward,  had  no  claim  in  equity,  because  the  large 
bounties  they  received  on  engaging  might  be  considered 
as  an  offset  to  what  they  afterward  lost.  But  very  dif- 
ferent was  the  case  of  those  who  had  enlisted  into  the 
permanent  army  prior  to  1780.  Having  served  through 
the  most  important  campaigns,  they  had  been  obliged  to 
accept  their  large  arrears  of  pay,  and  the  compensation 
allowed  them  for  the  depreciation  of  the  paper  money, 
in  certificates  unsupported  by  funds,  and  having  no  value 
beyond  their  market  price,  which  was  not  more  than  a 
fifth,  a  sixth,  or  even  an  eighth  of  their  nominal  amount. 
This  loss  the  United  States  were  bound  to  makeup,  and 


324  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES 

CHAPTER  they  might  do  it,  notwithstanding  the  liberal  provision 
already  made  for  the  holders  of  the  certificates,  without 
J  792.  paying  any  thing  more  in  the  whole  than  had  been  origin- 
ally promised.  Of  the  interest  of  six  per  cent,  origin- 
ally payable  on  the  certificates,  there  had  been  kept  back 
from  the  holders,  under  the  terms  of  the  new  funding 
system,  two  per  cent,  for  ten  years  on  the  principal 
amount,  while  the  over-due  interest  had  only  been  funded 
at  three  instead  of  six  per  cent.  Out  of  this  reserved 
fund  compensation  was  claimed  for  the  army.  It  was 
late  before  this  memorial  was  presented,  and  no  action 
was  had  upon  it  at  the  present  session. 

The  new  election  of  president,  to  take  place  before  the 
next  session  of  Congress,  suggested  the  necessity  of  pro- 
viding by  law  for  the  formalities  to  be  observed  on  such 
occasions.  By  an  act  upon  this  subject,  each  state  was, 
within  thirty-four  days  preceding  the  first  Wednesday 
of  December,  1792,  and  of  every  fourth  year  afterward, 
to  appoint  as  many  electors  as  it  would  be  entitled  to 
senators  and  representatives  in  Congress  when  the  pres- 
ident and  vice-president  to  be  chosen  should  enter  upon 
office.  The  electors,  the  method  of  whose  choice  and 
the  place  of  whose  meeting  was  left  to  the  state  Legis- 
latures, were  to  assemble  on  the  first  Wednesday  of  De- 
cember, and,  having  voted,  were  to  sign  three  certificates 
of  the  result,  to  each  of  which  was  to  be  annexed  a  list 
of  the  electors,  certified  by  the  governor  of  the  state 
Two  of  these  certificates  were  to  be  sent  to  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Senate,  one  by  a  special  messenger,  the  other 
through  the  post-office  ;  the  third  was  to  be  delivered  tc 
the  federal  judge  of  the  district ;  and  in  case  neither  of 
the  others  reached  the  seat  of  government  by  the  first 
Wednesday  of  January,  the  Secretary  of  State  was  tc 
dispatch  a  special  messenger  to  bring  it.  On  the  sec- 


PRESIDENTIAL  VACANCY,  HOW  FILLED.        323 

ond  "Wednesday  of  February  the  certificates  were  to  be  CHAPTER 
opened  by  Congress,  and  the  successful  candidates  de-, — __« 
clared.      This  act  is  still  in  force  (1853),  but  so  amend-  1792. 
ed  that  the   electors  are  now  chosen  on  the  same  day 
throughout  the  Union  :   the  Tuesday  next  after  the  first 
Monday  of  November  in  every  fourth  year. 

The  same  act  provided  for  filling  temporarily  the  ex- 
ecutive office,  in  case  of  the  inability,  resignation,  re- 
moval, or  death  of  both  president  and  vice-president,  the 
power  to  regulate  this  matter  by  law  being  conferred  on  * 

Congress  by  the  Constitution.  This  subject  had  been  a 
good  deal  discussed  in  the  former  Congress.  The  Secre- 
tary of  State,  the  Chief  Justice,  the  President  of  the  Sen- 
ate, and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  had  all  been  re- 
spectively proposed  for  that  purpose.  The  present  act 
selected  the  President  pro  tempore  of  the  Senate,  or,  in 
case  there  were  none,  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, to  act  till  the  removal  of  the  disability  or  a 
new  election,  to  be  held  in  such  cases  on  the  first  Wed- 
nesday of  December,  after  two  months'  notice  of  the  va- 
cancy given  by  the  Secretary  of  State  to  the  state  exec- 
utives. These  provisions,  contained  in  the  bill  as  it  came 
from  the  Senate,  met  with  some  opposition  in  the  House. 
It  was  denied  that  the  President  of  the  Senate  was  an 
officer  in  the  sense  of  the  Constitution.  The  friends  of 
Jefferson  seemed  to  insist,  almost  as  a  personal  matter, 
upon  the  claims  of  the  Secretary  of  State  to  act  as  the 
temporary  president.  Considering  that  the  contingency 
could  not  be  foreseen,  and  was  not  likely  to  occur  once 
in  a  century,  it  was  somewhat  hypercritically  urged  in 
reply,  that  to  select  any  head  of  a  department  would  be 
to  give  to  the  president  the  appointment  of  his  own  tem- 
porary successor.  The  objection  to  the  Chief  Justice 
was  more  solid.  It  was  his  duty  :o  officiate  in  the  Sen* 


326  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  ate  in  case  of  the  impeachment  of  the  president,  and  he 

might,  by  possibility,  if  acting  president,  be  called  upon 

1792.  to  preside  over  his  own  impeachment.  It  was  proposed 
to  substitute  the  senior  associate  justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court ;  but  finally  the  bill  passed  without  alteration,  and 
its  provisions  on  this  subject,  as  well  as  on  others,  still 
remain  the  law  of  the  land. 

The  appropriations  for  the  service  of  the  year  1792 
exhibited  a  great  increase  of  federal  expenditure.     They 
4  embraced  $611,270  46  for  the  civil  list,  diplomatic  in- 

tercourse, and  sundry  claims,  including  the  expense  of 
ten  cutters  for  the  revenue  department;  $532,449  71 
for  the  ordinary  expenses  of  the  War  Department,  includ- 
ing pensions  and  Indian  affairs,  with  $673,500  for  the 
new  regiments;  making,  with  $2,849,194  73.  to  which 
the  interest  already  payable  on  the  public  debt  was  cal- 
culated to  amount,  an  expenditure  for  the  year  of 
$4,666,414  94 — a  far  greater  annual  sum  than  the 
general  government  had  ever  yet  paid,  except  by  the  as 
sistance  of  paper  money  or  loans.  A  standing  order 
adopted  at  this  session,  and  ever  since  continued  in  force, 
required  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  at  an  early  day 
of  each  session,  to  communicate  to  the  House  an  accu 
rate  statement  of  the  receipts  of  all  public  moneys,  and 
the  expenditures  under  each  head  of  appropriation,  with 
the  unexpended  balances  of  appropriations. 

Pending  the  session  of  Congress,  a  Convention  met  in 
Kentucky  to  frame  a  Constitution  for  that  new  state. 
The  master  spirit  of  this  body  was  George  Nicholas,  like 
most  of  the  other  inhabitants,  an  emigrant  from  Virginia 
— the  same  person  who  had  moved,  in  the  Virginia  Leg- 
islature, for  Jefferson's  impeachment  during  the  inva- 
sion of  Cornwallis,  though  subsequently  and  at  present 
one  of  his  political  friends.  The  Constitution  drafted  bv 


CONSTITUTION    OF    KENTUCKY-  327 

Nicholas,  and  which  seems  to  have  been  agreed  to  with-  CHAPIEH 

IV. 

out  much  debate,  vested  the  legislative  authority  in  a 

Senate  and  House  of  Representatives.  The  representa-  1792. 
tives,  never  to  be  less  than  forty  nor  more  than  a  hundred, 
were  to  be  apportioned  among  the  counties  according  to 
the  relative  number  of  their  free  white  inhabitants  above 
twenty -one  years  of  age,  to  be  ascertained  by  enumera- 
tion once  in  four  years,  and  were  to  be  chosen  annually 
by  the  votes  of  the  free  white  citizens,  residents  in  the 
county  for  one  year,  or  in  the  state  for  two  years. 

The  Senate  was  to  consist  at  first  of  eleven  members  ; 
but  for  every  four  members  added  to  the  House,  there 
was  to  be  an  addition  of  one  senator.  These  senators, 
to  hold  office  for  four  years,  were  to  be  chosen,  not  di- 
rectly by  the  people,  but  indirectly  through  the  medium 
of  electors,  according  to  a  scheme  borrowed  from  the 
Constitution  of  Maryland.  These  electors,  equal  in 
number  to  the  representatives,  to  be  chosen  once  in  four 
years  in  the  counties,  were  to  meet  in  a  body  at  the  seat 
of  government,  there,  by  ballot,  to  make  choice  of  the 
senators,  who  were  empowered  to  fill  any  vacancies  in 
their  own  body.  At  the  same  time  and  place,  these 
same  electors  were  to  choose  a  governor,  to  hold  office, 
for  four  years,  with  a  qualified  veto  on  all  enactments, 
similar  to  that  possessed  by  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  with  a  like  appointing  power. 

No  pecuniary  qualification  was  required  either  in 
voters  or  officers,  but  representatives  must  be  twenty- 
four  years  of  age,  senators  twenty-seven,  the  governor 
thirty,  and  all  of  them  citizens  of  the  state  for  two  years. 

The  judicial  power,  in  matters  both  of  law  and  equity, 
was  to  be  vested  in  a  supreme  court,  to  be  styled  the 
,Court  of  Appeals,  and  in  such  inferior  courts  as  the  Leg- 
islature might  constitute.  All  the  judges  of  all  the  courts 


328  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  were  to  receive  a  compensation,  not  to  be  diminished 

\ during  their  continuance  in  office;   and,  as  well  as  the 

1792.  justices  of  the  peace,  were  all  to  be  appointed  by  the 
governor  for  good  behavior,  but  subject  to  removal  on  an 
address  to  that  effect  from  two  thirds  of  both  branches 
of  the  Legislature.  Sheriffs  and  coroners  were  to  be 
chosen  by  the  people  of  each  county  for  terms  of  three 
years.  The  existing  code  of  Virginia  was  to  remain  the 
law  of  the  new  state  until  altered  by  the  Legislature. 

A  separate  article  on  the  subject  of  slavery  provided 
that  the  Legislature  should  have  no  power  to  pass  laws 
for  the  emancipation  of  slaves  without  the  consent  of 
their  owners,  nor  without  paying  therefor,  previous  to 
such  emancipation,  a  full  equivalent  in  money  ;  nor  laws 
to  prevent  immigrants,  from  bringing  with  them  persons 
deemed  slaves  by  the  laws  of  any  one  of  the  United 
States,  so  long  as  any  persons  of  like  age  and  descrip- 
tion should  be  continued  in  slavery  by  the  laws  of  Ken- 
tucky. But  laws  might  be  passed  prohibiting  the  intro- 
duction of  slaves  for  the  purpose  of  sale,  and  also  laws 
to  oblige  the  owners  of  slaves  to  treat  them  with  hu- 
manity, to  provide  them  with  necessary  clothing  and 
provisions,  and  to  abstain  from  all  injuries  extending  to 
life  or  limb  ;  and  provision  might  be  made,  in  case  of 
disobedience  to  such  laws,  for  the  sale  of  the  slave  to 
some  other  owner,  the  proceeds  to  be  paid  over  to  the 
late  master.  The  Legislature  was  also  required  to  pass 
laws  giving  to  owners  of  slaves  the  right  of  emancipa- 
tion, saving  the  rights  of  creditors,  and  requiring  security 
.that  the  emancipated  slaves  should  not  become  a  burden 
to  the  county. 

By  a  bill  of  rights  prefixed,  full  freedom  of  conscience 
was  provided  for,  and  entire  equality  of  all  religions  and 
modes  of  worship. 


DELAWARE    AND    NEW    HAMPSHIRE.  329 

A  new  convention  might  be  held  at  the  end  of  seven  CHAPTER 

IV. 

years,  provided  a  majority  of  the  people,  at  two  success- 

ive  annual  elections,  voted  in  favor  of  it.  This  provision,  1792. 
when  it  came  to  be  acted  upon,  produced  some  important 
modifications,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  in  the  Constitu- 
tion of  Kentucky.  The  very  limited  authority  bestowed 
directly  on  the  people  presents  a  striking  contrast  to  the 
Constitution  of  Vermont,  and  serves  as  one  among  many 
other  proofs  that,  however  Virginia  and  the  states  settled 
from  it  might  exceed  in  theoretical  democracy,  the  prac- 
tical application  of  that  theory  was  far  more  efficiently 
carried  out  in  New  England. 

Kentucky  being  thus  organized  as  a  state,  Isaac  Shel- 
by was  chosen  the  first  governor. 

Simultaneously  with  the  coming  in  of  this  new  state, 
the  Constitutions  of  Delaware  and  New  Hampshire  un- 
derwent revisions.  The  changes  in  Delaware  corre- 
sponded very  much  with  those  recently  made  in  Penn- 
sylvania. The  president  became  a  governor,  elected  by 
the  people  for  three  years,  with  an  appointing  power  sim- 
ilar to  that  of  the  governor  of  Pennsylvania,  but  without 
any  veto  on  legislative  acts.  The  late  Legislative  Coun- 
cil became  a  Senate,  the  Executive  Council  being  alto- 
gether dispensed  with.  The  provision  contained  in  the 
Constitution  of  Pennsylvania,  authorizing  the  truth  to 
be  given  in  evidence  in  prosecutions  for  libel,  was  also 
copied  into  the  Constitution  of  Delaware. 

The  changes  in  New  Hampshire  were  less  material — 
little  more,  in  fact,  than  a  change  of  title  for  the  office 
of  chief  magistrate  from  president  to  governor.  As  un- 
der the  Constitution  of  1783,  modeled  after  that  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, the  legislative  authority  was  still  vested  in  a 
Senate  and  House  of  Representatives.  The  twelve  sen- 
ators were  distributed  among  the  courties.  Each  town 


330  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


CHAPTER  having  one  hundred  and  fifty  ratable  polls,  that  is,  male 
__^_  inhabitants  over  sixteen  years  of  age,  was  entitled  to 
1792.  one  representative,  and  another  for  every  addition  to  the 
population  of  three  hundred  ratable  polls.  There  was 
an  executive  council  of  five  members,  one  for  each  coun- 
ty, without  whose  advice  and  consent  the  governor  could 
not  act.  In  all  appointments  to  office,  the  governor  and 
council  had  a  negative  on  each  other.  The  judges  were 
appointed  for  good  behavior.  The  governor  and  coun- 
selors, as  well  as  the  members  of  the  General  Court, 
were  chosen  annually.  Representatives  were  required 
to  possess  property  to  the  value  of  $333  33,  one  half,  at 
least,  in  lands  ;  senators  must  have  twice  that  qualifica- 
tion, the  whole  in  lands ;  the  governor  must  have  prop- 
erty, half  of  it  in  land,  to  the  amount  of  $1666  66  : 
and  all  these  officers  were  required  to  be  of  the  Protest- 
ant religion  All  tax-paying  inhabitants  were  entitled 
to  vote. 


ALLEGED    MONARCHICAL    CONSPIRACY".  33] 


CHAPTER    V. 

ALLEGED  MONARCHICAL  CONSPIRACY.  BASIS  OF  PART  ¥ 
DIVISIONS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  DIFFERENCES  BE- 
TWEEN JEFFERSON  AND  HAMILTON.  RESISTANCE  TO 
THE  EXCISE.  INDIAN  AFFAIRS.  SECOND  SESSION  OF 
THE  SECOND  CONGRESS.  CHARGES  AGAINST  HAMILTON. 
WASHINGTON'S  SECOND  INAUGURATION. 


Washington's  accession  to  the  office  of  presi-  CHAPTER 
dent,  he  had  experienced  two  severe  and  even  dangerous  —  _. 
fits  of  sickness.      He  complained  of  a  growing  decline  of  1792. 
strength,  and  had  intimated  to  his  cabinet  his  design  to 
retire   at  the  close  of  his  present  term  of  office,  which, 
indeed,  had  been  his  intention  from  the  first.      His  re- 
tirement, however,  was  warmly  combated  from  very  op- 
posite quarters  ;  and  the  reasons  respectively  urged  throw 
a  strong  light  on  the  politics  of  the  times. 

Though  Jefferson  had  dwelt  with  great  emphasis  on 
the  re-eligibility  of  the  president  as  a  strong  objection  to 
the  Constitution,  he  did  not  hesitate,  very  soon  after  the 
adjournment  of  Congress,  to  address  a  letter  to  Wash- 
ington at  Mount  Vernon,  whither  he  had  retired  for 
some  temporary  repose,  strongly  pressing  upon  him  not 
to  decline  serving  a  second  term. 

The  want  of  confidence  and  serenity  in  the  public  May  13 
mind,  growing  out  of  causes  in  which  Washington  was 
no  ways  personally  mixed  up,  was  alleged  as  a  reason 
why  he  should  suffer  himself  to  be  re-elected.  "  Though 
these  causes  have  been  hackneyed  in  detail  in  the  public 
papers,"  so  the  letter  continued,  and  it  might  have  speci- 
fied as  the  leader  in  ^his  business  Freneau's  Gazette, 


HISTORY    OF    THE   UNITED    STATES 

CHAPTER  of  which  Jefferson  himself  was  believed  to  be  at  oneo 

v. 
patron  and  prompter,  "  it  may  not  be  amiss,  in  order  to 

1790.  calculate  the  effect  they  are  capable  of  producing,  to  take 
a  view  of  them  in  the  mass,  giving  to  each  the  form, 
real  or  imaginary,  under  which  they  have  been  presented. 
"  It  has  been  urged,  then,  that  a  public  debt,  greater 
than  we  can  possibly  pay  before  other  causes  of  adding 
new  debt  to  it  will  occur,  has  been  artificially  created  by 
adding  together  the  whole  amount  of  the  debtor  and 
creditor  sides  of  accounts,  instead  of  taking  only  their 
balances,  which  could  have  been  paid  off  in  a  short  time  ; 
that  this  accumulation  of  debt  has  taken  forever  out  of 
our  power  those  easy  sources  of  revenue  which,  applied 
to  the  ordinary  necessities  and  exigencies  of  government, 
would  have  answered  them  habitually,  and  covered  us 
from  habitual  murmurings  against  taxes  and  tax-gather- 
ers, reserving  extraordinary  calls  for  those  extraordinary 
occasions  which  would  animate  the  people  to  meet  them  ; 
that,  though  the  calls  for  money  have  been  no  greater 
than  we  must  generally  expect  for  the  same  or  equiva- 
lent exigencies,  yet  we  are  already  obliged  to  strain  the 
impost  till  it  produces  clamor,  and  will  produce  evasion, 
and  war  on  our  citizens  to  collect  it,  and  even  to  resort 
to  an  excise  law,  of  odious  character  with  the  people, 
partial  in  its  operation,  unproductive,  unless  enforced  by 
arbitrary  and  vexatious  means,  and  committing  the  au- 
thority of  government  in  parts  where  resistance  is  most 
probable  and  coercion  least  practicable. 

"  They  cite  propositions  in  Congress  and  suspect  oth- 
ers, still  to  increase  the  mass  of  debt.  They  say  that 
by  borrowing  at  two  thirds  of  the  interest,  we  might 
have  paid  off  the  principal  in  two  thirds  of  the  time ; 
but  that  from  this  we  are  precluded  by  its  being  made 
irredeemable  but  in  small  portions  and  in  long  terms ; 


ALLEGED    MONARCHICAL    CONSPIRACY. 

and  that  this  irredeemable  quality  was  given  to  it  for 
the  avowed  purpose  of  inviting  its  transfer  to  foreign 
countries.  They  predict  that  this  transfer  of  the  prin- 
cipal,  when  completed,  will  occasion  an  exportation  of 
three  millions  of  dollars  annually  for  the  interest,  a  drain 
of  coin  of  which,  as  there  has  been  no  example,  no  cal- 
culation can  be  made  of  its  consequences  ;  and  that  the 
banishment  of  our  coin  will  be  completed  by  the  creation 
of  ten  millions  of  paper  money  in  the  form  of  bank  bills 
now  issuing  into  circulation. 

"  They  think  the  ten  or  twelve  per  cent,  annual  profits 
paid  to  the  lenders  of  this  paper  medium  are  taken  out 
of  the  pockets  of  the  people,  who  would  have  had  without 
interest  the  coin  it  is  banishing  ;  that  all  the  capital  em- 
ployed in  paper  speculation  is  barren  and  useless,  pro- 
ducing, like  that  on  a  gaming-table,  no  accession  to  itself, 
and  is  withdrawn  from  commerce  and  agriculture,  where 
it  would  have  produced  addition  to  the  common  mass ; 
that  it  nourishes  in  our  citizens  habits  of  vice  and  idle- 
ness instead  of  industry  and  morality  ;  that  it  has  fur- 
nished effectual  means  of  corrupting  such  a  portion  of 
the  Legislature  as  turns  the  balance  between  the  honest 
voters,  whichever  way  it  is  directed ;  that  this  corrupt 
squadron  deciding  the  voice  of  the  Legislature  have  man- 
ifested their  disposition  to  get  rid  of  the  limitations  im- 
posed by  the  Constitution  on  the  general  Legislature, 
limitations  on  the  faith  of  wrhich  the  States  acceded  to 
that  instrument ;  that  the  ultimate  object  of  all  this  is 
to  prepare  the  way  for  a  change  from  the  present  repub- 
lican form  of  government  to  that  of  a  monarchy,  of  which 
the  English  Constitution  is  to  be  the  model.  That  this 
was  contemplated  in  the  Convention  is  no  secret,  because 
its  partisans  have  made  none  of  it.  To  effect  it  then 
was  impracticable ;  but  they  are  still  eager  after  their 


331  HISTORY  OF  THE    UNI  TED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  object,  and  are  predisposing  every  thing  ft  r  its  ultimate 
'  attainment.  So  many  of  them  have  got  into  the  Leg- 
1792.  islature,  that,  aided  by  the  corrupt  squadron  of  paper 
dealers,  who  are  at  their  devotion,  they  make  a  majority 
in  both  houses.  The  Republican  party,  who  wish  tc 
preserve  the  government  in  its  present  form,  are  fewer 
in  number.  They  are  fewer  even  when  joined  by  the 
two,  three,  or  half  dozen  anti-Federalists,  who,  though 
they  dare  not  avow  it,  are  still  opposed  to  any  general 
government ;  but  being  less  so  to  a  republican  than  a 
monarchical  one,  they  naturally  join  those  whom  they 
think  pursuing  the  lesser  evil. 

"  Of  all  the  mischiefs  objected  to  the  system  of  meas- 
ures before  mentioned,  none  is  so  afflicting  and  fatal  to 
every  honest  hope  as  the  corruption  of  the  Legislature. 
As  it  was  the  earliest  of  these  measures,  it  became  the 
instrument  for  producing  the  rest,  and  will  be  the  instru- 
ment for  producing  in  future  a  king,  lords,  and  commons, 
or  whatever  else  those  who  direct  it  may  choose.  With- 
drawn such  a  distance  from  the  eye  of  their  constituents, 
and  these  so  dispersed  as  to  be  inaccessible  to  public  in- 
formation, and  particularly  to  that  of  the  conduct  of 
their  own  representatives,  they  will  form  the  most  cor- 
rupt government  on  earth,  if  the  means  of  their  corrup- 
tion be  not  prevented. 

"  The  only  hope  of  safety  hangs  now  on  the  numer- 
ous representation  which  is  to  come  forward  the  ensuing 
year.  Some  of  the  new  members  will  probably  be  either 
in  principle  or  interest  with  the  present  majority.  But 
it  is  expected  that  the  great  mass  will  form  an  accession 
to  the  Republican  party.  They  will  not  be  able  to  undo 
all  which  the  two  preceding  Legislatures,  and  especially 
the  first,  have  done.  Public  faith  and  right  will  oppose 
this.  But  some  parts  of  the  system  may  be  rightfully 


ALLEGED    MONARCHICAL   CONSPIRA.C  Y.         335 

reformed,  a  liberation  from  the  rest  unremittingly  pur-  ..IAPTER 
sued  as  fast  as  right  will  permit,  and  the  door  shut  in  fu  ' 

tare  against  similar  commitments  of  the  nation  Should  1792. 
the  next  Legislature  take  this  course,  it  will  draw  upon 
them  the  whole  monarchical  and  paper  interest.  The 
latter,  I  think,  will  not  go  all  lengths  with  the  former,: 
because  creditors  will  never,  of  their  own  accord,  fly  off 
entirely  from  their  debtors.  Therefore  this  is  the  alter- 
native least  likely  to  produce  convulsion.  But  should 
the  majority  of  the  new  members  be  still  in  the  same 
principles  with  the  present,  and  show  that  we  have 
nothing  to  expect  but  a  continuance  of  the  same  prac- 
tices, it  is  not  easy  to  conjecture  what  would  be  the  re- 
sult, nor  what  means  would  be  resorted  to  for  correction 
of  the  evil.  True  wisdom  would  direct  that  they  should 
be  temperate  and  peaceable.  But  the  division  of  senti- 
ment and  interest  happens  unfortunately  to  be  so  ge- 
ographical, that  no  mortal  can  say  that  what  is  most 
wise  and  temperate  would  prevail  against  what  is  more 
easy  and  obvious. 

"I  can  scarcely  contemplate  a  more  incalculable  evil 
than  the  breaking  of  the  Union  into  two  or  more  parts. 
Yet  when  we  review  the  mass  that  opposed  the  original 
coalescence ;  when  we  consider  that  it  lay  chiefly  in  the; 
Southern  quarter ;  that  the  Legislature  have  availed 
themselves  of  no  occasion  of  allaying  it,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, whenever  Northern  or  Southern  prejudices  have 
come  in  conflict,  the  latter  have  been  sacrificed  and  the 
ibrmer  soothed ;  that  the  owners  of  the  debt  are  in  the 
Southern,  and  the  holders  of  it  in  the  Northern  division ; 
that  the  anti-Federal  champions  are  now  strengthened  in 
argument  by  the  fulfillment  of  their  predictions  ;  that  this 
has  been  brought  about,  by  the  monarchical  Federalists 
themselves^  who,  having  been  for  the  new,  government: 


336  HISTORY    OF    THE    UJNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  merely  as  a  stepping-stone  to  monarchy,  have  themselves 
'  adopted  the  very  constructions  of  the  Constitution,  of 
1792.  which,  when  advocating  it  before  the  people,  they  de- 
clared it  insusceptible  ;  that  the  republican  Federalists, 
who  espoused  the  same  government  from  its  intrinsic 
merits,  are  disarmed  of  their  weapons,  that  which  they 
denied  as  prophecy  having  become  true  as  history — who 
can  be  sure  that  these  things  may  not  proselyte  the  small 
number  which  was  wanting  to  place  the  majority  on  the 
other  side  ?  And  this  is  the  event  at  which  I  tremble, 
and  to  prevent  which  I  consider  your  continuance  at  the 
head  of  affairs  as  of  the  last  importance." 

This  very  extraordinary  letter  was  not  the  first  occa- 
sion on  which  Jefferson  had  attempted  to  poison  Wash- 
ington's  mind  against  those  whose  zeal  and  activity  had 
secured  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  and 
whose  practical  wisdom  had  marked  out  for  the  new 
government  a  course  of  policy  so  eminently  successful, 

Feh.29  In  a  private  conversation  some  three  months  before,  of 
which  Jefferson  himself  has  left  us  a  memorandum  in  his 
celebrated  Ana,  he  had  briefly  urged  the  same  topics,  and 
with  even  greater  bitterness  against  Hamilton,  declaring 
the  administration  of  the  treasury  department  to  be  the 
sole  cause  of  the  public  discontents,  and  dwelling  with 
great  emphasis  on  the  alleged  corrupt  connivance  between 
Hamilton  and  certain  members  of  Congress. 

The  topics  of  Jefferson's  letter,  which  must  be  con- 
sidered as  placing  in  their  most  plausible  shape  all  tho 
charges  made  against  the  new  government  by  the  Re- 
publican  opposition,  as  they  called  themselves,  were  pres- 
ently communicated  to  Hamilton  for  his  observations  ,- 
not,  indeed,  as  coming  from  Jefferson,  but  as  what  Wash- 
ington had  ascertained,  during  his  stay  at  Mount  Ver- 
non,  to  be  the  ideas  circulating  among  those  less  favor- 


ALLEGED  MONARCHICAL  CONSPIRACY.         337 

able  to  the  government ;   among  whom,  as  if  to  draw  off  CHAPTER 

Hamilton's  attention,  he  particularly  named  his  neighbor 

George  Mason,  who  had  taken  so  decided  a  part  in  op-  1792. 
position  to  the  Federal  Constitution.     Hamilton's  answer 
to  these  charges  has  been  recently  printed  for  the  first 
time  in  the  new  edition  of  Hamilton's  writings  by  his 
son.      But  even  without  such  assistance,  it  is  sufficient- 
ly easy  to  perceive  in  Jefferson's  charges  a  great  distor 
tion  of  facts,  large  drafts  upon  an  excited  imagination, 
and  unnecessary  alarms  at  chimerical  dangers. 

As  to  the  funding  of  the  public  debt,  there  seems  too 
much  reason  to  suspect  that,  while  it  was  only  the 
method  and  incidents  that  were  professedly  found  fault 
with,  it  was,  in  fact,  the  substance  of  the  thing  that  gave 
the  real  offense.  What  was  more  natural  than  that  those 
who  resisted  so  pertinaciously  the  payment  of  their  own 
private  debts — and  there  was  scarcely  an  anti-Federal 
state  in  which  laws  for  that  purpose  had  not  been  enact- 
ed— should  be  inclined  to  look  on  the  public  creditors 
with  equal  disfavor  ?  It  is  by  no  means  easy  to  recon- 
cile with  any  principles  of  candor  or  justice  Jefferson's 
extreme  eagerness  to  reap  all  the  fruits  of  the  discontent 
which  the  funding  of  the  public  debt  had  occasioned,  and 
his  efforts  to  stimulate  that  discontent,  with  that  wish 
for  the  payment  of  the  debt  and  anxiety  to  preserve  the 
public  faith  which  at  the  same  time  he  professed  to  feel. 

The  idea  that  the  burden  of  paying  the  public  debt 
fell  with  disproportionate  weight  on  the  South,  because 
the  original  creditors,  or,  as  Jefferson  expressed  it,  "  the 
owners  of  the  debt,"  were  chiefly  in  that  section,  while 
the  present  holders  of  it  werf  mostly  at  the  North,  can 
only  be  explained  as  one  of  those  exaggerations  into  which 
the  people  of  all  sections  naturally  fall,  and  of  which 
party  politicians  so  generally  avail  themselves  to  stir  up 

*  iv — y 


338  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  local  iiscontents.  So  far  as  the  Revolutionary  debt  grew 
nnt  of  certificates  for  military  services,  since  New  En- 
1792.  gland  furnished  more  men  than  all  the  other  states  put 
together,  her  original  share  of  that  part  of  the  debt  must 
evidently  have  been  in  the  same  proportion.  So  far  as 
the  debt  grew  out  of  actual  loans,  the  records  of  the  loan- 
offices  proved  a  great  preponderance  of  Northern  lenders. 
Most  of  the  remainder  of  the  debt  originated  in  certifi- 
cates for  supplies  furnished  to  the  army  ;  and  that  the 
great  bulk  of  these  supplies  had  been  drawn  from  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  Jersey,  was  a  matter  be- 
yond any  dispute.  That  a  considerable  proportion  of  the 
certificates  originally  issued  at  the  South  had  passed  into 
Northern  hands  was  undoubtedly  true  ;  but  this  was  only 
a  natural  and  inevitable  result  of  the  course  of  trade,  and 
of  the  fact  that  the  few  capitalists  of  the  country  able  to 
wait  the  leisure  of  the  United  States  were  chiefly  to  be 
found  in  the  Northern  section.  So  far  as  respected  per- 
sonal benefit  to  individuals,  the  North,  no  doubt,  had  a 
greater  interest  than  the  South  in  the  funding  of  the 
public  debt ;  but  in  the  great  national  benefits  of  that 
measure,  the  re-establishment  of  credit,  public  and  pri 
vate,  and  the  impulse  thereby  given  to  every  branch  of 
industry,  all  sections  of  the  Union  shared  alike.  But 
these  were  benefits  which  the  Republican  opposition  had 
neither  the  sagacity  to  perceive,  nor,  had  they  perceived 
them,  the  candor  to  recognize. 

The  idea  that  the  amount  of  the  debt  had  been 
swelled  by  adding  together  the  debtor  and  creditor  side 
of  accounts,  had  reference,  it  is  probable — but  what  ref- 
erence exactly  it  is  not  easy  to  tell — to  the  assumption 
of  the  state  debts,  a  measure  of  which,  at  this  day,  no 
one  will  dispute  either  the  justice  or  the  wisdom.  The 
notion  that  the  transfer  of  the  debt  to  foreign  holders 


ALLEGED    MONARCHICAL    CONSPIRACY.        339 

vVould  be  an  injury  to  the  country,  that  the  interest  of  CHAPTER 

the  debt  so  transferred  could  only  be  paid  by  the  export- ... 

ation  of  coin,  and  that  all  capital  invested  in  stocks  was  1792, 
so  much  withdrawn  from  commerce  and  agriculture, 
evinced  no  very  great  knowledge  of  finance  or  political 
economy  ;  nor  was  this  horror  of  foreign  creditors  very 
compatible  with  the  idea  of  paying  off  the  debt  in  two 
thirds  of  the  time  by  borrowing  at  two  thirds  of  the  in- 
terest, which  only  could  have  been  done,  if  at  all,  by 
converting  the  domestic  into  a  foreign  debt. 

These  carping  criticisms  on  the  funding  system— the 
established  privilege  of  opposition— were  indeed  of  very 
little  consequence  compared  with  the  more  serious  charges 
urged  by  Jefferson,  and  of  which  he  must  be  taken  to 
be  the  responsible  endorser,  if  not  the  original  author,  of 
the  existence  of  "  a  corrupt  squadron  deciding  the  voice 
of  the  Legislature,"  and  under  the  control  of  a  monarch- 
ical party,  who  intended  to  avail  themselves  of  the  ma- 
jority thus  obtained  to  overthrow  the  existing  republican 
system,  and  to  establish  in  its  place  a  monarchy  after 
the  British  model.  Who  were  the  individuals  compos- 
ing this  corrupt  squadron  ?  In  what  particular  way 
had  they  been  corrupted  ?  To  the  like  charges  of  cor- 
ruption and  corrupt  influence,  reiterated  in  Freneau's 
Gazette,  it  had  been  well  replied  by  the  Federal  news- 
papers that,  until  the  individuals  intended  were  pointed 
out,  until  specific  cases  of  corruption  were  stated,  this 
accusation,  hanging  unfixed  over  the  heads  of  some  fifty 
members  of  Congress — that  being  the  number,  both 
houses  included,  of  those  who  had  sustained  the  funding 
system  throughout — must  be  regarded  as  an  impotent 
piece  of  malice,  contemptible  alike  for  its  falsehood  and 
its  cowardice.  To  this  reasonable  challenge,  repeated 
afterward  on  the  floor  of  the  House,  no  reply  was  evei 


340  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

CHAPTER  made  ;  and  this  charge  of  corruption,  affecting  the  honai 
'  of  some  of  the  most  distinguished  men  whom  the  nation 
1792.  has  ever  produced,  was  left  to  rest  on  vague  suggestions, 
that  several  members  of  the  first  Congress  were  large 
holders  of  the  public  debt,  and  that  two  or  three  of 
them,  among  whom  Sedgwick  and  Smith,  of  South  Car- 
olina, were  afterward  specified  in  private  letters  or  by 
irresponsible  pamphleteers,  had  gained  money  by  buying 
up  stocks  in  anticipation  of  the  adoption  of  the  funding 
system. 

But  it  was  not  merely  as  to  the  funding  system  that 
corruption  was  charged  to  exist.  The  funding  of  the 
public  debt  was  not  an  end,  but  a  means.  The  same 
corrupt  squadron  by  whom  that  measure  had  been  car- 
ried, by  means  of  that  very  measure  had  been  purchased 
up  generally  to  do  the  bidding  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury — such  was  the  charge — having  sold  them- 
selves, in  fact,  as  tools  to  a  conspiracy  for  overturning 
the  Federal  Constitution,  and  setting  up  a  monarchy  in 
its  place.  Under  this  strange  hallucination  of  a  mo- 
narchical conspiracy  for  the  destruction  of  the  Constitu- 
tion on  the  part  of  those  by  whom  its  adoption  had  been 
secured,  from  which  the  country  was  only  saved  by  the 
republican  zeal  and  virtue  of  himself  and  his  anti-Fed- 
eral friends  and  supporters,  Jefferson  labored  to  his  dying 
day ;  and  to  impose  a  like  delusion  on  posterity  seems 
to  have  been  one  chief  object  of  the  carefully  prepared 
collection  of  papers  and  letters  which  he  left  behind  him 
for  publication. 

Of  Jefferson's  political  bigotry  we  have  already  had 
occasion  to  speak.  With  a  very  acute  intellect,  he  had 
in  his  constitution  a  strong  tinge  of  fanaticism.  His 
imagination  so  far  predominated  over  his  reason  as  tc 
lead  him  to  see  things,  not  as  they  were,  but  as  he  hoped 


ALLEGED  MONARCHICAL  CONSPIRACY.    343 

wished,  suspected  they  might  be  ;  and,  as  is  very  apt  to  be  CHAPTER 

the  case  with  men  of  a  fanatical  turn  of  mind,  there  was , 

nothing  bad  which  he  did  not  suspect  of  those  who  did  1792. 
not  share  in  and  subscribe  to  all  his  dogmas.  Suspi- 
cions and  facts  he  confounded  together  into  one  indistin- 
guishable mass.  The  mere  figments  of  his  imagination 
or  the  circulating  scandals  of  the  day  seemed  to  him 
more  actually  facts  than  the  very  facts  passing  before 
his  eyes.  This  quality  of  mind  was  inconsistent  with 
sound  judgment,  but  it  admirably  qualified  him  for  a 
party  leader  in  excited  times,  bringing  him  into  close 
sympathy  with  that  great  mass  who  feel  keenly,  guess 
wildly,  reason  little,  and  believe  unhesitatingly. 

What  Washington  thought  of  this  pretended  monarch- 
ical conspiracy,  and  of  the  general  course  pursued  by  the 
opposition,  of  which  Jefferson  began  now  to  be  the  rec- 
ognized head,  sufficiently  appears  by  a  conversation 
which  took  place  at  Philadelphia  shortly  after  Washing-  July  10 
ton's  return  from  Mount  Vernon,  of  which  Jefferson  has 
preserved  a  memorandum  in  his  Ana.  Jefferson's  letter 
not  having  found  Washington  at  Mount  Vernon,  had 
followed  him  back  to  Philadelphia.  In  an  interview  on 
the  subject  of  it,  Washington  remarked,  "  that,  with 
respect  to  the  existing  causes  of  uneasiness,  he  thought 
that  there  were  suspicions  against  a  particular  party 
which  had  been  carried  a  great  deal  too  far.  There 
might  be  desires,  but  he  did  not  believe  there  were  de- 
signs to  change  the  form  of  government  into  a  monarchy. 
There  might  be  a  few  who  wished  it  in  the  higher  walks 
of  life,  particularly  in  the  great  cities,  but  the  main  body 
of  the  people  in  the  Eastern  States  were  as  steady  for 
Republicanism  as  in  the  Southern.  Pieces  lately  pub- 
lished, and  particularly  in  Freneau's  paper,  seemed  to  have 
in  view  the  exciting  opposition  to  the  government,  and 


jj42  HISTORY    OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  this  had  already  taken  place  in  Pennsylvania  as  to  the 
excise  law.  These  pieces  tended  to  produce  a  separa- 
1792  tion  of  the  Union,  the  most  dreadful  of  all  calamities: 
and  whatever  tended  to  produce  anarchy,  tended,  of 
course,  to  produce  a  resort  to  monarchical  government. 
He  considered  those  papers  as  attacking  him  directly, 
for  he  must  be  a  fool  indeed  to  swallow  the  little  sugar- 
plums here  and  there  thrown  out  to  him.  '  In  condem- 
ning the  administration  of  the  government,  they  con- 
demned him  ;  for  if  they  thought  measures  were  pur- 
sued contrary  to  his  judgment,  they  must  consider  him 
too  careless  to  attend  to,  or  too  stupid  to  understand 
them.  He  had,  indeed,  signed  many  acts  which  he  did 
not  approve  in  all  their  parts,  but  he  had  never  put  his 
name  to  one  which  ho  did  not  think  eligible  on  the 
whole.  As  to  the  bank,  which  had  been  the  subject  of 
so  much  complaint,  until  there  was  some  infallible  crite- 
rion of  reason,  differences  of  opinion  must  be  tolerated. 
He  did  not  belicvo  that  the  discontent  extended  far  from 
the  seat  of  government.  He  had  seen  and  spoken  with 
many  in  Maryland  and  Virginia  during  his  last  journey, 
and  had  found  the  people  contented  and  happy.  He  de- 
fended the  assumption  of  the  state  debts  on  the  ground 
that  it  had  not  increased  the  total  amount  to  be  paid. 
All  of  it  was  honest  debt,  and  whether  paid  by  the  states 
individually  or  by  the  Union,  it  was  still  alike  a  burden 
on  the  people.  The  excise  he  defended  as  one  of  the 
best  laws  that  could  be  passed,  nobody  being  obliged  to 
pay  who  did  not  elect  to  do  so." 

The  great  seat  of  this  supposed  monarchical  conspir- 
acy Jefferson  imagined  to  be  the  Eastern  States,  precisely 
that  part  of  the  Union  of  which  he  knew  least,  having 
never  had  any  relations  of  business  or  intercourse  with 
it;  yet,  beyond  all  question,  the  part  of  the  Union  in 


PARTY    DIVISIONS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES.  343 

which  republican  ideas  were  most  thoroughly  established  CHAPTEB 
and  most  completely  carried  into  practice.  Having,  in 
the  course  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  been  brought  into  1792. 
intimate  connection  with  New  England,  Washington 
knew  thoroughly  the  character  of  that  people  ;  and  how- 
ever Jefferson  might  surpass  him  in  some  other  qualities, 
in  freedom  from  passion  and  prejudice,  in  sound  judg- 
ment as  to  the  realities  of  life,  there  was  no  comparison 
between  them.  In  New  England,  as  elsewhere,  some 
few  individuals  might  have  entertained  a  speculative 
preference  for  monarchy.  They  might  even  have  be- 
lieved, as  seems  to  have  been  the  case  with  Adams  and 
Hamilton,  that,  with  the  progress  of  wealth,  population, 
and  civil  dissensions,  and  perhaps  speedily  in  the  latter 
ease,  such  a  form  of  government,  through  the  inevitable 
tendency  of  things,  would  be  ultimately  established.  But 
that  Hamilton,  or  Adams,  or  any  body  else  had  any  plan 
or  scheme  for  bringing  about  such  a  change — that  there 
was  really  on  foot  any  such  monarchical  conspiracy  as 
Jefferson  suggested — was,  as  Washington  pronounced  it, 
an  idea  utterly  baseless.  Preliminary  to  a  plot  for  es- 
tablishing a  monarchy,  it  would  be  necessary  to  fix  upon 
somebody  for  king ;  nor  was  there  any  other  person  but 
Washington  whom  any  body  could  have  thought  of  for 
such  a  purpose.  Yet  of  Washington's  inflexible  repub- 
licanism not  even  Jefferson,  who  has  spared  nobody  else, 
ever  presumed  to  breathe  a  doubt ,  unless,  indeed,  such  a 
loubt  may  seem  to  be  implied  in  the  care  taken  to  re- 
cord the  insensibility  and  incredulity  of  that  great  man 
as  to  dangers  from  this  monarchical  conspiracy,  from 
which  we  are,  perhaps,  impliedly  called  upon  to  believe 
that  the  country  was  saved  even  in  spite  of  Washington 
himself. 

The  antagonistic  modifications  of  political  sentiment 


344  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  prevailing  in  the  United  States  were  very  far  indeed 
'  from  being  monarchical  and  republican.  Whatever  fan- 
1  792.  cies  some  individuals  might  indulge  in,  monarchy,  as  a 
practical  matter,  was  just  as  little  thought  of  then  as 
now.  The  only  real  controversy  was  as  to  the  amount 
of  democracy  which  safely  could  be  and  ought  to  be  in- 
fused into  the  republican  system  adopted  as  well  by  the 
Union  as  by  the  separate  states ;  for  all  admitted  the 
distinction  taken  by  Madison  in  the  Federalist,  that  the 
American  governments  were  not  proper  democracies,  but 
representative  republics,  the  difference  being  this,  that 
in  democracies  the  main  conduct  of  affairs  is  directly  in 
the  hands  of  the  people,  whereas,  in  representative  repub- 
lics, instead  of  acting  directly  themselves,  the  people  in- 
trust the  conduct  of  affairs  to  certain  agents  selected  for 
that  purpose. 

Though  the  American  governments  gave  great  weight 
to  the  voice  of  the  people,  acknowledged  to  be  the  source 
and  origin  of  all  authority — a  weight  which  has  gradu 
ally  and  greatly  increased  with  the  increased  diffusion  of 
political  intelligence — they  were  very  far  from  being  such 
purely  democratic  republics  as  Paine  advocated  in  his 
"  Rights  of  Man,"  and  as  Jefferson,  by  his  approbation 
bestowed  upon  that  work,  seemed  theoretically  to  ap- 
prove. This  was  especially  the  case  with  that  Federal 
Constitution  of  which  Jefferson  now  claimed  to  be  the 
true  friend  and  supporter  against  its  unnatural  fathers, 
accused  of  seeking  to  distort  it  into  a  monarchy  ;  and  the 
case  also  especially  with  that  particular  construction  of 
the  Constitution  upon  which  he  insisted  as  the  only  one 
consistent  with  republican  liberty.  How  was  it  possible 
to  reconcile  with  the  democratic  theory  of  the  sovereign 
power  of  numerical  majorities  that  doctrine  of  state 
rights  of  which,  as  leader  of  the  late  anti-Federal,  now 


PARTY    DIVISIONS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES.   345 

Republican  party,  Jefferson  was  the  especial  champion  ?  CHAPTEB 
The  very  fundamental  compromises  on  which  the  Fed- 
eral  Constitution  rested,  the  equal  vote  of  the  states  in  1792. 
the  Senate,  the  extra  weight  given  to  the  South  by  al- 
lowing a  representation  of  slave  property,  were  remark- 
able departures  from  the  democratic  idea. 

The  recognition  of  the  judiciary  as  a  third  and  inde- 
pendent branch  of  the  government,  and  the  principles  on 
which  that  judiciary  was  constituted,  as  well  in  most  of 
the  states  as  under  the  Federal  Constitution,  were  equally 
inconsistent  with  pare  democracy.  In  a  pure  democracy 
the  judiciary  would  have  been  what  Paine  maintained  it 
ought  to  be,  a  mere  branch  of  the  executive,  the  judges 
being  annually  chosen  by  the  people,  and  directly  re- 
sponsible to  them.  Under  the  American  Constitutions 
this  important  function  was  exercised  by  a  small  body  of 
judges,  holding  office,  except  in  two  or  three  states,  dur- 
ing good  behavior,  and  selected,  not  from  the  citizens  at 
large,  but  from  the  limited  profession  of  the  law.  The 
custom  of  colonial  times,  of  placing  non-professional 
judges  on  the  bench,  had  been  quite  superseded  as  to  the 
higher  tribunals,  and  even  in  the  inferior  tribunals  the 
principal  and  presiding  judge  was  generally  a  lawyer. 
The  law  administered  by  these  tribunals  consisted  not 
alone  of  legislative  enactments,  but  included  also  the 
common  law  of  England,  adopted  in  all  the  states,  with 
various  local  modifications,  as  a  component  part  of  Ameri- 
can jurisprudence.  The  more  learned  the  bar  and  bench 
became,  the  more  attention  was  paid  to  common  law  doc- 
trines and  to  English  precedents ;  whence  followed  the 
curious  result,  that,  so  far  as  actual  practice  went,  the 
law  of  England  became  much  more  extensively  the  law 
of  America  after  the  Revolution  than  it  had  been  before. 
Nor  was  the  power  possessed  by  these  triV  unals,  so  per- 


346  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  manent  in  their  tenure  of  office*,  and  filled  up  from  s<i 

y 

'  narrow  a  class,  limited  at  all  to  the  mere  decision  of  par- 
1792.  ticular  controversies.  Under  the  form  of  declaring  the 
law,  they  possessed,  in  all  doubtful  and  disputed  cases,  a 
real  legislative  authority,  and  in  the  exercise  of  that  au- 
thority have  contributed,  perhaps,  not  less  than  the  nom- 
inal legislators,  to  make  up  the  system  of  American  juris- 
prudence. 

The  body  of  lawyers  attached  to  these  tribunals,  es- 
sential, indeed,  to  their  operation,  and  from  among  whom 
the  supply  of  judges  was  exclusively  drawn,  associated 
together  under  certain  rules  for  their  own  benefit,  and 
possessing  that  invaluable  juridical  knowledge  which 
to  the  great  mass  of  the  people  was  a  mystery,  consti- 
tuted a  sort  of  separate  and  superior  order  in  the  state 
The  education  and  habits  of  this  class  were  by  no  means 
such  as  to  incline  them  to  ultra-democratical  ideas.  The 
usage,  indeed,  of  trials  by  jury  introduced  something  of 
democracy  into  the  administration  of  justice ;  but  the 
jury  was,  for  the  most  part,  in  strict  subordination  to  the 
court ;  and  the  lawyers,  as  a  body,  inclined  strongly  tc 
the  opinion  that,  however  the  people  might  be  trusted 
with  the  election  of  representatives  and  of  a  few  local 
officers,  they  would  do  well,  in  political  as  in  legal  mat- 
ters, to  rely  with  pretty  implicit  confidence  on  those 
whom  they  had  chosen  as  their  attorneys,  without  ven- 
turing themselves  upon  any  very  direct  interference  with 
the  management  of  affairs. 

Of  the  same  opinion  were  the  clergy  and  the  leading 
members  of  the  great  religious  sects.  Indeed,  the  theo- 
logical doctrine  of  the  natural  depravity  of  mankind,  and 
that  goodness  is  only  to  be  found  in  the  regenerate,  could 
not  be  reconciled,  without  some  difficulty,  with  the  the- 
ory of  the  capacity  of  mankind  to  govern  themselves 


PARTY    DIVISIONS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES.  347 

The  existence  of  a  select  class  of  church  members,  raised  CHAPTER 

by  spiritual  gifts  above  the  ordinary  level,  would  natu- 

rally  harmonize  with  the  idea  of  a  select  class  also  in  1792. 
secular  matters,  to  whose  superior  wisdom  and  virtue  the 
administration  of  affairs  might  more  safely  be  intrusted. 

The  merchants  and  capitalists,  mostly  men  who  had 
raised  themselves  by  their  own  superior  energy  and  sa- 
gacity to  a  position  above  the  vulgar  level,  were  little 
disposed  to  descend  again  to  that  level  on  questions  of 
political  concernment ;  and  this  feeling  would  naturally 
exist,  to  a  still  stronger  degree,  among  the  large  landed 
proprietors  of  the  Middle  States  and  the  slave-holding 
planters  of  the  South. 

The  classes  above  enumerated  might  be  considered  as 
constituting  the  natural  aristocracy  of  the  Union  and  the 
states,  disposed,  from  their  superior  education  and  social 
position,  to  regard  the  chief  direction  of  public  affairs  as 
properly  appertaining  to  them,  and  not  inclined  to  give 
to  the  democratic  principle  any  further  extension  than  it 
had  already  attained  ;  indeed,  disposed  perhaps  somewhat 
to  curtail  it. 

What  might  be  called  the  natural  democracy  of  the 
Union  consisted  of  the  great  body  of  small  land-holders, 
the  mass  of  the  free  inhabitants,  men  who  cultivated 
their  own  farms  with  their  own  hands  ;  in  virtue  of 
that  inherent  power  which  superior  wealth,  knowledge, 
and  social  position  every  where  carry  with  them,  and 
which  no  formal  declaration  of  equality  can  ever  take 
away,  swayed,  indeed,  in  all  the  states,  to  a  very  great 
extent,  by  the  classes  above  enumerated;  but  still  watch- 
ing with  jealous  eyes  every  thing  which  tended  to  curtail 
their  political  rights,  or  which  seemed  to  look  like  special 
legislation  for  the  benefit  of  particular  classes. 

It  would,  however,  be  a  very  great  mistake  to  suppose 


348  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  that  the  line  of  separation  between  the  political  parties 
of  the  Union,  either  at  this  or  at  any  other  period,  at 
1  792.  all  coincided  with  the  above  classification  into  a  natural 
aristocracy  and  a  natural  democracy.  The  same  thing 
has  happened  in  the  United  States  which  has  happened 
in  all  other  communities ;  the  great  political  divisions 
have  arisen  not  so  much  from  any  direct  contest  between 
the  principles  of  aristocracy  and  democracy,  as  from  the 
factions  into  which  the  natural  aristocracy  has  split ; 
the  democracy  chiefly  making  itself  felt  by  the  occa- 
sional unanimity  with  which  it  has  thrown  itself  into 
the  scale  of  one  or  other  of  such  contending  factions. 
Generally  speaking,  however,  no  such  unanimity  has 
been  perceptible,  each  faction  of  the  natural  aristocracy 
having  on  most  occasions  been  able  to  carry  with  it  a 
majority  at  least  of  that  section  of  the  natural  democracy 
most  immediately  within  the  circle  of  its  influence. 

In  .the  division  of  parties  which  took  place  on  the  ques 
tion  of  the  funding  system  and  the  general  policy  of  the 
new  federal  government,  the  lawyers,  the  clergy,  the 
merchants  and  capitalists,  the  great  land-holders  in  the 
Middle  States,  almost  all  the  educated  and  intelligent 
men  of  the  North,  united  quite  generally  in  favor  of 
Hamilton's  measures ;  and  their  influence  had  been  suf- 
ficient, thus  far,  to  give  to  those  measures  the  support  of 
the  Northern  States.  South  of  the  Potomac  the  planters 
were  all-powerful,  while  the  other  sections  of  the  natural 
aristocracy  counted  in  those  states  for  little  or  nothing 
in  comparison ;  and  as  the  planters  were  generally  op- 
posed to  the  funding  system,  they  had  little  difficulty  in 
carrying  those  states  into  an  opposition  to  the  federal 
administration,  an  opposition  into  which  the  outcry  sc 
loudly  raised  in  those  states  against  the  Constitution  it« 
self  was  by  this  time  pretty  generally  merged. 


PARTY    DIVISIONS    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES.  349 

Looking  only  to  fundamentals,  10  two  classes  in  the  CHAPTEH 
community  might  seem  more  naturally  antagonistic  than     .     '    . 
the   small,  self- working  agricultural   proprietors   of  the  1792. 
Northern  States,  and  the  possessors  of  large  plantations 
cultivated  by  slaves.      There  were,  however,  some  ac- 
cidental circumstances  which  brought  these  two  classes 
into  close  sympathy,  giving  rise  to  relations  which  pro- 
duced a  remarkable  effect  on  the  politics  of  the  United 
States,  through  the  traditionary  influence  of  party  names 
and  associations,  prolonged,  in  some  degree,  even  to  th^ 
present  time. 

The  expenses  and  efforts  of  the  Revolutionary  war  had 
left  not  only  the  states  and  the  confederacy,  but  individ- 
uals also,  greatly  burdened  with  debt.  Almost  all  the 
small  land-holders  had  been  obliged  to  struggle  at  once 
against  tax-gatherers,  state  and  national,  and  their  own 
creditors.  It  was  this  state  of  things  which  in  Rhode 
Island,  where  these  embarrassed  land-holders  had  obtained 
control  of  the  government,  had  produced  the  paper  money 
tender  laws,  and  in  Massachusetts,  where  they  had  failed 
to  do  so,  the  insurrection,  headed  by  Shays.  But  this 
pecuniary  embarrassment  was  not  confined  to  the  small 
land-holders.  It  extended  in  almost  equal  degree  to  the 
greater  part  of  the  Southern  planters,  who,  besides  their 
more  recent  debts,  found  hanging  over  their  heads,  in 
consequence  of  the  powers  given  to  the  general  govern- 
ment to  enforce  the  treaty  with  Great  Britain,  that  large 
mass  of  ante-Revolutionary  claims  on  the  part  of  English 
merchants  already  more  than  once  referred  to.  To  meet 
this  general  state  of  indebtedness,  paper  money  had  been 
freely  issued  in  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas,  and  stop  and 
tender  laws  enacted.  In  Virginia,  this  precaution  against 
creditors  was  carried  still  further,  being  made  to  assume 
a  permanent  form  by  a  repeal,  toward  the  end  of  the 


350  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES 

CHAPTER  present  year,  of  the  old  law  common  hitherto  to  Virginia 

— _  and  all  the  other  states,  by  which  lands  were  liable  to  be 

1  792  seized  on  execution.  For  that  seizure  was  substituted 
the  aristocratic  English  writ  of  eligit,  the  creditor  being 
reduced  to  a  choice  between  a  process  against  the  person 
or  movable  goods  of  his  debtor,  or  against  the  rents  and 
profits  of  one  half  his  lands,  possession  of  that  half  to  be 
delivered  to  him,  by  appraisement,  for  a  period  nominally 
sufficient  to  pay  the  debt.  But  from  the  over-estimate 
always  made  in  such  cases,  this  law  became  nearly  equiv- 
alent, in  practice,  to  an  exemption  of  lands  from  execu- 
tion. 

It  was  on  this  common  ground  of  pecuniary  distress 
that  so  many,  both  of  the  aristocratic  planters  and  of  the 
democratic  farmers,  had  united  against  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution, which  they  justly  regarded  as  the  work  of  the 
creditor  party,  intended  and  likely  to  lead  to  a  strict  en- 
forcement of  contracts,  both  public  and  private.  A  com- 
mon reluctance  to  pay,  a  common  dread  of  taxation,  a 
common  envy  of  the  more  fortunate  moneyed  class,  whose 
position  had  been  so  palpably  improved  by  the  funding 
of  the  public  debt — though  little  more  so,  in  reality,  than 
the  position  of  every  body  else — made  both  farmers  and 
planters  join  in  those  clamors  against  the  funding  sys 
tem,  into  which  Jefferson  and  his  co-operators,  not  con- 
tent with  a  mere  re-echo  of  them,  sought  to  infuse  a  new 
bitterness  by  dark  charges  of  corruption  and  alarming 
insinuations  of  anti-Republican  designs. 

Added  to  this  was  another  feeling,  which  served  to 
bind  this  sympathy  still  closer,  and  to  give  to.it  a  more 
permanent  character — a  common  feeling  of  hatred  to- 
ward Great  Britain,  more  intense  in  these  two  classes 
than  in  any  others,  and  soon  roused  into  vigorous  action 
as  well  by  domestic  events  as  by  the  progress  of  the 


PARTY  DIVISIONS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  351 

French  Revolution,   and  the  war  between  France  and  CHAPTEB 

v. 
England  growing  out  of  it.      Pending  the  Revolutionary 

struggle,  every  art  had  been  used  to  inflame  the  public  1792 
mind  against  Great  Britain,  and  accordingly  as  men 
were  more  or  less  vindictive,  or  more  or  less  under  the 
operation  of  aggravating  or  soothing  causes,  this  tempo- 
rary inflammation  had  produced  results  more  or  less 
chronic.  As  a  general  rule,  the  educated  and  reflecting 
are  the  first  to  rise  above  the  excitements  of  passion, 
whether  particular  or  national.  The  lawyers,  chief  lead- 
ers of  the  conservative  party,  by  the  very  nature  of  their 
studies,  soon  softened  toward  the  country  whence  flow- 
ed the  jurisprudence  of  the  common  law.  The  great 
religious  sects  were  drawn  by  powerful  sympathies  to- 
ward their  counterparts  in  Great  Britain.  Pecuniary 
interest  and  the  intercourse  of  trade  soon  effaced  from 
the  minds  of  the  merchants  almost  all  traces  of  the  recent 
struggle.  But  the  agricultural  masses  of  the  North  con- 
tinued to  hate  with  the  fixed  intensity  natural  to  a  rural 
population,  which  does  not  easily  change,  and  to  this  feel- 
ing by  far  the  larger  portion  of  the  Southern  people,  of 
all  classes,  very  heartily  responded.  The  war,  during 
its  latter  years,  had  been  almost  exclusively  confined  to 
the  South,  and  had  been  carried  on  there  in  a  very  re- 
vengeful  and  ferocious  spirit.  Virginia  had  been  repeat- 
edly ravaged;  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas  had  been  made 
to  suffer  under  the  effects,  not  only  of  invasion  from 
abroad,  but  of  Indian  and  civil  war.  In  the  bitter  ha- 
tred which  these  ravages  had  left  in  many  breasts,  Jef- 
ferson himself  very  warmly  participated.  One  of  the 
invasions  had  taken  place  while  he  was  governor,  and 
the  public  calamities  occasioned  by  it  had  not  only  driven 
him  to  resign  his  office,  but  had  even  threatened  to  sub- 
ject him  to  the  mortification  of  an  impeachment ;  he 


,'J52  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED  STATES. 

•3HAPTER  had  a  very  narrow  escape  from  personal  capture ;  one  of 
'  his  plantations  had  been  ravaged,  and  a  large  number  of 
1 792.  slaves  carried  off.  Thus,  by  his  own  personal  experience, 
was  Jefferson  strongly  impelled  to  sympathize  with  a 
feeling  which  soon  came  to  exercise  a  powerful  influence 
over  national  politics,  and  which  served  as  a  new  and 
more  permanent  bond  of  union  between  that  Southern 
section  of  the  natural  aristocracy  headed  by  Jefferson, 
and  a  large  mass  of  the  democracy  of  the  North.  The 
natural  democracy  of  the  South,  the  body  of  poor,  non- 
slave-holding  freemen,  sympathized  also  in  this  same  ha- 
tred of  Great  Britain,  and  their  voices  helped  to  swell 
the  cry.  But  this  class  then,  as  now,  were  of  very  little 
account  in  politics,  which  in  the  South  have  been  always 
under  the  exclusive  control  of  the  slave-holding  planters. 
Jefferson,  indeed,  saw  in  himself — such  are  the  delu- 
sions to  which  ardent  temperaments  are  liable — and  he 
labored  to  persuade  Washington  to  see  in  him  the  head 
of  a  republican  party  struggling  against  the  corrupt 
machinations  of  Hamilton  and  others,  who  were  seeking 
to  impose  a  monarchical  Constitution  on  the  country. 
The  simple  fact  of  the  matter  seems  to  have  been,  as, 
indeed,  is  apparent  from  several  parts  of  his  own  letter, 
quoted  above,  that  he  was  merely  the  head  of  a  party, 
chiefly  Southern,  exceedingly  angry  at  not  having  been 
able  to  dictate  the  management  of  federal  affairs,  hostile 
to  the  funding  system,  and  resolved  to  make  some  alter- 
ations in  it.  The  reasons  which  he  held  out  to  Wash- 
ington for  consenting  to  a  re-election  were,  in  brief,  the 
danger  of  a  desperate  assault  on  the  government  by  the 
Northern  Federalists,  should  they  fail  to  obtain  a  ma- 
jority in  the  new  Congress,  and  the  still  greater  danger, 
if  they  did  obtain  such  a  majority,  of  a  secession  from  the 
Union  on  the  "part  of  the  Southern  States.  But  as  the 


HAMILTON'S    VIEW    OF    AFFAIRS..  353 

question  at  this  moment  seemed  to  lie  between  the  con-  CHAPTEB 

tinuance  of  Washington  in  office  and  the  successorship 

of  some  Northern  federal  man,  either  Adams  or  Jay,  1792. 
Jefferson  might  also  have  strong  private  as  well  as  pub- 
lic reasons  for  the  advice  which  he  gave. 

Though  Hamilton  does  not  seem  to  have  looked  upon 
matters  in  quite  so  alarming  a  light,  he  was  not  less  ur- 
gent with  Washington  still  to  maintain  his  place  at  the 
helm.  "It  is  clear,  says  every  one  with  whom  I  have 
conversed,"  so  he  wrote  shortly  after  Washington's  de-  July  3C 
parture  for  Mount  Vernon  on  a  second  visit,  "  that  the 
affairs  of  the  national  government  are  not  yet  firmly  es-  • 
tablished  ;  that  its  enemies,  generally  speaking,  are  as 
inveterate  as  ever  ;  that  their  enmity  has  been  sharpened 
by  its  success,  and  by  all  the  resentments  which  flow 
from  disappointed  predictions  and  mortified  vanity  ;  that 
a  general  and  strenuous  effort  is  making  in  every  state 
to  place  the  administration  of  it  in  the  hands  of  .its  ene- 
mies, as  if  they  were  its  safest  guardians ;  that  the  pe- 
riod of  the  next  House  of  Representatives  is  likely  to 
prove  the  crisis  of  its  permanent  character  ;  that  if  you 
continue  in  office,  nothing  materially  mischievous  is  to  be 
apprehended ;  if  you  quit,  much  is  to  be  dreaded  ;  that 
the  same  motives  which  induced  you  to  accept  originally 
ought  to  decide  you  to  continue  till  matters  have  assumed 
a  more  determinate  aspect ;  that,  indeed,  it  would  have 
been  better,  as  regards  your  own  character,  that  you  had 
never  consented  to  come  forward,  than  now  to  leave  the 
business  unfinished,  and  in  danger  of  being  undone  ;  that, 
in  the  event  of  storms  arising,  there  would  be  an  impu- 
tation either  of  want  of  foresight  or  want  of  firmness ; 
and,  in  fine,  that  on  public  and  personal  accounts,  on 
patriotic  and  prudential  considerations,  the  clear  path  to 
be  pursued  by  you  will  be  again  to  obey  the  voice  of 
IV.— Z 


354  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  your  country,  which,  it  is  not  doubted,  will  be  as  earnest 
'       and  unanimous  as  ever.y> 

1792.  In  order  to  a  complete  view  of  the  light  in  which 
things  presented  themselves  to  those  at  the  center  of  af- 
fairs, and  as  tending  to  show  what  it  was  that  the  party 
in  opposition  really  contemplated,  it  is  necessary  to  add 
a  letter  addressed  to  Washington  on  the  same  topic  by 
Randolph,  the  attorney  general,  who  affected  to  hold  a 
sort  of  balance  in  the  cabinet  between  the  two  rival  sec- 
retaries, though  commonly  disposed  to  side  with  Jeffer- 
son, as  Knox,  the  other  cabinet  counselor,  always  wa? 
with  Hamilton.  "  It  can  not  have  escaped  you,"  wrote 

Aug.  5.  Randolph,  u  that  divisions  are  formed  in  our  politics  as 
systematic  as  those  which  prevail  in  Great  Britain.  Such 
as  opposed  the  Constitution  from  a  hatred  to  the  Union 
can  never  be  conciliated  by  any  overture  or  atonement. 
By  others  it  is  meditated  to  push  the  construction  of  the 
federal  powers  to  every  tenable  extreme.  A  third  class, 
republican  in  principle,  and  thus  far,  in  my  judgment, 
happy  in  their  discernment  of  our  welfare,  have,  notwith- 
standing, mingled  with  their  doctrines  a  fatal  error,  that 
the  state  assemblies  are  to  be  resorted  to  as  the  engines 
of  correction  to  the  federal  administration.  The  honors 
belonging  to  the  chief  magistracy  are  objects  of  no  com- 
mon  solicitude  to  a  few  who  compose  a  fourth  denomi- 
nation. 

"  The  ferment  which  might  be  naturally  expected 
from  these  ingredients  does  actually  exist.  The  original 
enemies  not  only  affect  to  see  a  completion  of  their  ma- 
lignant prophecies,  but  are  ready  to  improve  every  cal- 
umny to  the  disgrace  of  the  government.  To  their  corps 
are  or  will  be  added,  in  a  great  measure,  the  mistaken 
friends  of  republicanism,  while  the  favorers  of  the  high 
tone  are  strenuous  in  the  prosecution  of  their  views. 


* 
RANDOLPH'S    VIEW    OF    AFFAIRS.  .355 

"  The  real  temper,  however,  of  the  people  is,  I  be-  CHAPTER 
iieve,  strictly  right  at  this  moment.     Their  passions  have  . 

been  tried  in  every  possible  shape.  After  the  first  tti-  1792. 
mult  excited  by  the  discussion  of  the  Constitution  had 
abated,  several  acts  of  Congress  became  the  theme  of 
abuse.  But  they  have  not  yet  felt  oppression,  and  they 
love  order  too  much  to  be  roused  into  a  deliberate  com- 
motion, without  the  intervention  of  the  most  wicked  art- 
ifices. They  will,  it  is  true,  be  told,  at  the  meeting  of 
every  state  Legislature,  that  Congress  have  usurped. 
But  this,  if  unfounded,  will  be  ascribed  to  the  violence 
of  those  who  wish  to  establish  a  belief  that  they  alone 
can  save  the  individual  states  from  the  general  vortex, 
by  being  elected  into  the  federal  councils. 

"  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  judiciary,  in 
spite  of  their  apparent  firmness  in  annulling  the  pension 
law,  are  not,  what  some  time  hence  they  will  be,  a  re- 
source against  the  infractions  of  the  Constitution  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  steady  assertor  of  the  federal  rights 
on  the  other.  So  crude  is  our  judiciary  system,  so  jeal- 
ous are  state  judges  of  their  authority,  so  ambiguous  is 
the  language  of  the  Constitution,  that  the  most  probable 
quarter  from  which  an  alarming  discontent  may  proceed 
is  the  rivalry  of  these  two  orders  of  judges.  The  mere 
superiority  of  talent  in  the  federal  judges  (if,  indeed,  it 
were  admitted)  can  not  be  presumed  to  counterbalance 
the  real  talents  and  full  popularity  of  their  competitors. 
At  this  instant,  too,  it  is  possible  thai  the  federal  judges 
may  not  be  so  far  forgetful  of  their  connection  with  the 
state  governments  as  to  be  indifferent  about  the  con- 
tinuance of  their  old  interest  there.  This,  I  suspect, 
has,  on  some  occasions,  produced  an  abandonment  of  the 
true  authority  of  the  government.  Besides,  many  severe 
experiments,  the  result  of  which  can  not  be  foreseen, 


356  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  await  the  judiciary.      States  are  brought  into  court  an 

defendants  to  the  claims  of  land  companies  and  Individ- 

1792.  uals;  British  debts  rankle  deeply  in  the  hearts  of  one 
part  of  the  United  States ;  and  the  precedent  fixed  by 
the  condemnation  of  the  pension  law,  if  not  reduced  to  its 
precise  principles,  may  justify  every  constable  in  thwart- 
ing  the  laws. 

"  In  this  threatening  posture  of  affairs  we  must  gain 
time,  for  the  purpose  of  attracting  confidence  to  the  gov- 
ernment by  an  experience  of  its  benefits  ;  and  that  name 
alone,  whose  patronage  secured  the  adoption  of  the  Con- 
stitution, can  check  the  assaults  which  it  will  sustain 
at  the  two  next  sessions  of  Congress. 

"  The  fiscal  arrangements  will  have  various  degrees 
and  kinds  of  ill  humor  to  encounter.  Objectionable  as 
they  were  at  first  to  myself  in  many  respects,  yet  am  1 
assured  that  they  can  not  now  be  changed  without  a  con- 
vulsion to  public  credit.  Can  any  new  project  be  sug- 
gested free  from  blemish  ?  Have  not  the  clamors  of  the 
people  concerning  the  assumption  subsided  ?  Can  any 
tax  be  substituted  for  the  excise  without  rekindling  those 
very  complaints  which  the  excise  generated,  but  which 
have  now  almost  died  away  ?  If  any  thing  can  prevent 
machinations  like  these,  it  will  be  a  reverence  for  your 
official  character ;  if  any  thing  can  crush  them,  it  will 
be  your  negative. 

"Another  of  the  efforts  meditated  against  the  public 
debt  is  to  destroy  its  irredeemability.  I  sincerely  wish 
that  this  quality  had  never  been  given  to  it.  But  how 
can  we  tread  back  the  ground  upon  which  European 
money-holders  have  been  led  into  our  funds  ?  The  in- 
jury to  the  United  States  can  never  amount  to  more 
than  the  difference  between  the  interest  which  we  pay. 
and  some  lower  rate  at  which  perhaps  we  might  borrow 


.RANDOLPH'S    VIEW    OF    AFFAIRS.  357 

Co  discharge  the  debt.      Borrow  we   must  for  such   an  CHAPTEH 
object,  since  the  sum  which  we  are  free  to  wipe  off,  ac-  _. 

cording  to  our  stipulation,  is  equal  to  our  present  abil-  1792, 
ity.  And  is  this  chance  of  advantage  a  sufficient  tempta- 
tion on  which  to  hazard  our  half-fledged  reputation  ? 
What  should  you  say,  sir,  if  for  this  purpose  a  land  tax 
should  be  laid  by  Congress  which  shall  not  take  effect 
unless  the  states  should  neglect  to  raise  the  money  by 
their  own  laws  ?  I  think  it  would  soon  be  discovered 
that  such  a  measure  would  insensibly  restore  requisi- 
tions. These  evils  are  also  within  the  scope  of  your 
control. 

"  The  fuel  which  has  been  already  gathered  for  com- 
bustion wants  no  addition.  But  how  awfully  might  it 
oe  increased,  were  the  violence  which  is  now  suspended 
by  a  universal  submission  to  your  pretensions  let  loose 
by  your  resignation.  Those  Federalists"  —  Randolph 
must  here  be  supposed  to  mean  those  persons  calling 
themselves  friends  of  the  Federal  Constitution — "  who 
can  espouse  Mr.  Clinton  against  Mr.  Adams  as  vice- 
president,  will  not  hesitate  at  a  more  formidable  game. 
The  Constitution  would  not  have  been  adopted  but  from 
a  knowledge  that  you  had  once  sanctioned  it,  and  an  ex- 
pectation that  you  would  execute  it.  It  is  in  a  state  of 
probation.  The  most  inauspicious  struggles  are  past ; 
but  the  public  deliberations  need  stability.  You  alone 
can  give  them  stability.  Should  a  civil  war  arise,  you 
can  not  stay  at  home.  And  how  much  easier  will  it  be 
to  disperse  the  factions  which  are  rushing  to  this  catas- 
trophe, than  to  subdue  them  after  they  shall  appear  ia 
arms !" 

While  this  correspondence  was  still  going  on  between 
Washington  and  his  secretaries,  the  feelings  of  hostility 
between  Hamilton  and  Jefferson  reached  a  new  pitch  of 


358  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

CHAPTER  aggravation.  The  attacks  upon  the  financial  policy  o! 
'  the  government,  kept  up  with  untiring  pertinacity  ic 
1792.  Freneau's  Gazette,  provoked  Hamilton  at  last  to  pub- 
Aug.  4.  ^h  a  newspaper  article,  under  the  signature  of  "an 
American,"  in  which  attention  was  called  to  Freneau's 
paper  as  the  organ  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  specially 
set  up  by  him  for  that  purpose,  and  edited  by  a  clerk  in 
his  office,  a  connection  represented  by  "  an  American" 
as  indelicate,  unfit,  and  inconsistent  with  those  preten- 
sions to  extraordinary  republican  purity  of  which  so  sus- 
picious a  parade  was  exhibited  upon  every  occasion.  If 
Mr.  Jefferson  disapproved  of  the  government  itself,  how 
could  he  reconcile  it  to  his  own  personal  dignity  and  the 
principles  of  probity  to  hold  office  under  it,  and  to  em- 
ploy the  means  of  official  influence  in  opposition  ?  If  he 
disapproved  of  the  leading  measures  of  the  administra- 
tion, how  could  he  reconcile  it  with  the  principles  of  del- 
icacy and  propriety  to  hold  a  place  in  that  administration, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  be  instrumental  in  vilifying 
measures  which  had  been  adopted  by  both  branches  of 
the  Legislature,  and  sanctioned  by  the  chief  magistrate 
of  the  Union  ?  As  a  key  to  his  conduct  in  this  matter, 
the  additional  statements  were  made  that  Jefferson,  at 
first,  was  opposed  to  the  Constitution  and  against  its 
adoption  ;  and  further,  that  he  was  the  declared  opponent 
of  almost  all  the  important  measures  of  the  government, 
especially  those  relating  to  the  finances  and  the  public 
debt.  The  article  concluded  with  an  eloquent  contrast, 
as  to  the  effect  upon  the  public  welfare,  between  the^ 
policy  adopted  by  the  government  and  that  advocated  by 
the  party  of  which  Jefferson  seemed  to  aspire  to  be  the 
leader. 

Just  before  this  attack  upon  him  appeared,  Jefferson 
had  left  Philadelphia  on  a  visit  to  Monticello.     Freneau 


HAMILTON    AND    JEF1ERSON  359 

come  out  with  an  affidavit  denying  that  he  had  ever  had  CHAPTEJR 

any  negotiations  with  Jefferson  as  to  the  establishment 

of  his  paper,  or  was  ever  controlled  or  influenced  by  him  1792. 
in  its  management,  or  that  he  ever  wrote  or  dictated  a 
line  for  it.  But  to  this  "  an  American"  replied,  that 
facts  spoke  louder  than  words,  and,  under  certain  cir- 
cumstances, louder  than  oaths,  and  it  was  still  insisted 
that  Freneau's  paper  was  Jefferson's  organ.  It  was 
not  at  Freneau,  but  at  Jefferson,  so  this  second  article 
stated,  that  these  strictures  had  been  aimed,  their  object 
being  to  expose  a  public  officer  who  had  not  scrupled  to 
embarrass  and  disparage  the  government  of  which  he  was 
a  member ;  the  prompter,  open  or  secret,  of  unwarrant- 
able aspersions  on  men  who,  so  long  as  actions,  not  merely 
professions,  should  be  taken  as  the  true  test  of  patriotism 
and  integrity,  need  never  decline  a  comparison  with  him 
as  to  their  titles  to  public  esteem. 

These  articles,  at  once  ascribed  to  Hamilton,  produced 
a  great,  excitement  among  Jefferson's  friends,  and  drew 
out  several  answers,  to  which  Hamilton  in  due  time  re- 
plied. As  soon  as  Washington,  then  at  Mount  Vernon, 
became  aware  of  the  breaking  out  of  this  newspaper  war, 
he  made  an  effort  to  bring  about  a  truce  between  his  ri- 
val and  angry  secretaries.  In  a  letter  to  Jefferson,  after  Aug  22 
detailing  some  information  just  received  from  the  front- 
iers tending  to  show  British  and  Spanish  intrigues  with 
the  Indians,  he  added,  "  How  unfortunate  and  how  much 
to  be  regretted  it  is  that,  while  we  are  encompassed  on 
all  sides  with  avowed  enemies  and  insidious  friends,  in- 
ternal dissensions  .should  be  harrowing  and  tearing  out 
our  vitals  ?  The  latter,  to  me,  is  the  most  serious,  the 
:jnost  alarming,  the  most  afflicting  of  the  two  ;  and  with- 
out more  charity  for  the  opinions  and  acts  of  others  in 
.governmental  matters,  or  some  more  infallible  criterion 


360  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

CHAPTER  than  has  yet  fallen  to  the  lot  of  humanity,  by  which  the 

truth  of  speculative  opinions,  before  they  have  undergone 

1792.  the  test  of  experience,  is  to  be  forejudged,  I  believe  it 
will  be  difficult,  if  not  impracticable,  to  manage  the  reins 
of  government,  or  to  keep  the  parts  of  it  together  ;  for  if, 
instead  of  laying  our  shoulder  to  the  machine  after  meas- 
ures are  decided  on,  one  pulls  this  way  and  another  that, 
before  the  utility  of  the  thing  is  fairly  tried,  it  must  in- 
evitably be  torn  asunder  ;  and,  in  my  opinion,  the  fair- 
est prospect  of  happiness  and  prosperity  that  ever  was 
presented  to  man  will  be  lost  perhaps  forever. 

"  My  earnest  wish  and  my  fondest  hope  therefore  is, 
that  instead  of  wounding  suspicions  and  irritating  charges, 
there  may  be  liberal  allowances,  mutual  forbearances, 
and  tempoming  yieldings  on  all  sides.  Under  the  exer- 
cise of  these,  matters  will  go  on  smoothly,  and,  if  possi- 
ble, more  prosperously.  Without  them,  every  thing  must 
rub ;  the  wheels  of  government  will  clog;  our  enemies 
will  triumph,  and  by  throwing  their  weight  into  the  dis- 
affected scale,  may  accomplish  the  ruin  of  the  goodly  fab- 
ric we  have  been  erecting. 

"  I  do  not  mean  to  apply  this  advice  or  these  observa- 
tions to  any  particular  person  or  character.  I  have  given 
them  in  the  same  general  terms  to  other  officers  of  the 
government,  because  the  disagreements  which  have  arisen 
from  difference  of  opinions,  and  the  attacks  which  have 
been  made  upon  almost  all  the  measures  of  government, 
and  most  of  its  executive  officers,  have  for  a  long  time 
past  filled  me  with  painful  sensations,  and  can  not  fail, 
I  think,  of  producing  unhappy  consequences  at  home  and 
abroad." 

Two  or  three  days  after  he  wrote  to  Hamilton  to  the 
same  effect,  but  perhaps  a  little  more  pointedly.  The 
answers  returned  were  sufficiently  characteristic  of  thfc 


HAMILTON  AND  JEFFERSON.         35  J 

writers.      a  It  is  my  most  anxious  wish,"  wrote  Hamil-  CHAPTER 

con,  "  as  far  as  may  depend  upon  me,  to  smooth  the  path 

of  your  administration,  and  to  render  it  prosperous  and  1792. 
happy.  And  if  any  prospect  shall  open  of  healing  or 
terminating  the  differences  which  exist,  I  shall  most 
cheerfully  embrace  it,  though  I  consider  myself  as  the 
deeply  injured  party.  The  recommendation  of  such  a 
spirit  is  worthy  of  the  moderation  and  wisdom  which 
dictated  it ;  and  if  your  endeavors  should  prove  unsuccess- 
ful, I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that,  in  my  opinion,  the  pe- 
riod is  not  remote  when  the  public  good  will. require 
substitutes  for  the  differing  members  of  your  administra- 
tion. The  continuance  of  a  division  there  must  destroy 
the  energy  of  government,  which  will  be  little  enough 
with  the  strictest  union.  On  my  part  there  will  be  a 
most  cheerful  acquiescence  in  such  a  result. 

"  I  trust,  sir,  that  the  greatest  frankness  has  always 
marked,  and  will  always  mark,  every  step  of  my  conduct 
toward  you.  In  this  disposition  I  can  not  conceal  from 
you  that  I  have  had  some  instrumentality  of  late  in  the 
retaliations  which  have  fallen  upon  certain  public  char- 
acters, and  that  I  find  myself  placed  in  a  situation  not 
to  be  able  to  recede  for  the  present. 

"  I  considered  myself  compelled  TO  this  conduct  by 
reasons  public  as  well  as  personal,  of  the  most  cogent 
nature.  I  know  that  I  have  been  an  object  of  uniform 
opposition  from  Mr.  Jefferson  from  the  moment  of  his 
coming  to  the  city  of  New  York  to  enter  on  his  present 
office.  I  know,  from  the  most  authentic  sources,  that  I 
have  been  the  frequent  subject  of  the  most  unkind 
whispers  and  insinuations  from  the  same  quarter.  I 
have  long  seen  a  formed  party  in  the  Legislature  under 
his  auspices,  bent  upon  my  subversion.  I  can  not  doubt, 
from  the  evidence  I  possess,  that  the  National  Gazette 


362  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  was  instituted  by  him  for  political  purposes,  and  that  one 
leading  object  of  it  has  been  to  render  me,  and  all  the 
1792  measures  connected  with  my  department,  as  odious  as 
possible. 

"  Nevertheless,  I  can  truly  say  that,  except  explana* 
tions  to  confidential  friends,  I  never,  directly  nor  indi- 
rectly, retaliated  or  countenanced  retaliation  till  very 
lately.  As  long  as  I  saw  no  danger  to  the  government 
from  the  machinations  that  were  going  on,  I  resolved 
to  be  a  silent  sufferer  of  the  injuries  that  were  done  me. 
I  determined  to  avoid  giving  occasion  to  any  thing  which 
could  manifest  to  the  world  dissensions  among  the  prin- 
cipal characters  of  the  government — a  thing  which  can 
never  happen  without  weakening  its  hands,  and  in  some 
degree  throwing  a  stigma  upon  it. 

"  But  when  I  no  longer  doubted  that  there  was  a 
formed  party  deliberately  bent  upon  a  subversion  of 
measures  which,  in  its  consequence,  would  subvert  the 
government ;  when  I  saw  that  the  undoing  of  the  fund- 
ing system  in  particular  was  an  avowed  object  of  the 
party,  which,  whatever  may  be  the  original  merits  of 
that  system,  would  prostrate  the  credit  and  honor  of  the 
nation,  and  bring  the  government  into  contempt  with 
that  description  of  men  who  are  in  every  society  the  only 
firm  supporters  of  government,  and  that  all  possible  pains 
were  taking  to  produce  that  effect  by  rendering  the  fund- 
ing system  odious  to  the  body  of  the  people,  I  considered 
it  as  a  duty  to  endeavor  to  resist  the  torrent,  and,  as  an 
effectual  means  to  that  end,  to  draw  aside  the  veil  from 
the  principal  actors.  To  this  strong  impulse,  to  this  de- 
cided conviction,  I  have  yielded  ;  and  I  think  events  will 
prove  that  I  have  judged  rightly. 

"  Nevertheless,  I  pledge  my  honor  to  you,  sir,  that  if 
you  shall  hereafter  form  a  plan  to  reunite  the  members 


HAMILTON  AND  JEFFERSON.         363 

of  your  administration  upon  some  steady  principle  of  co.  CHAPTER 

operation,  I  will  faithfully  concur  in  executing  it  during 

my  continuance  in  office  ;  and  I  will  not,  directly  or  in-  1792 
directly,  say  or  do  a  thing  that  shall  endanger  a  feud." 

Here  was  a  letter,  like  the  writer,  indignant  under  a 
sense  of  injury,  strong  in  conscious  integrity,  exhibiting 
a  calm  confidence  of  ability  to  repel  all  assaults  and  to 
punish  the  aggressor,  but  without  bitterness,  malice,  or 
any  thing  like  an  implacable  spirit. 

Jefferson's  letter,  dated  on  the  same  day,  and  written 
from  Monticello,  is  in  a  very  different  strain,  made  up,  in 
a  great  measure,  of  a  violent  attack  upon  Hamilton  and 
his  system  of  policy,  reiterating  as  his  own,  and  as  mat- 
ter of  fact,  those  gross  charges  of  corruption  which,  in 
his  previous  letter,  already  quoted,  he  had  conveyed  to 
Washington  merely  as  "  hackneyed  in  the  public  papers," 
and  with  the  qualification  of  being  "  real  or  imaginary." 
"When  I  embarked  in  the  government,"  he  writes,  "it 
was  with  a  determination  to  intermeddle  not  at  all  with 
the  legislative,  and  as  little  as  possible  with  the  co-de- 
partments. The  first  and  only  instance  of  variance 
from  the  former  part  of  my  resolution  I  was  duped  into 
by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  made  a  tool  for 
forwarding  his  schemes,  and,  of  all  the  errors  of  my 
political  life,  this  has  occasioned  me  the  deepest  regret." 
The  allusion  here  was  to  Jefferson's  agency  in  bringing 
about  the  log-rolling  compromise,  by  which  the  assump- 
tion of  the  state  debts  and  the  fixing  of  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment on  the  Potomac  were  coupled  and  carried  to- 
gether. His  own  account  of  that  matter  as  given  in  his 
Ana,  and  already  referred  to,  abundantly  shows  that  this 
pretense  of  having  been  duped  on  that  occasion  was  but 
a  lame  apology  for  his  subsequent  course,  amounting  only 
;  to  this,  that,  not  having  very  fully  considered  the  mat- 


364  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

CHAPTER  ter,  and  being  told  that  the  refusal  to  assume  the  state 

debts  endangered  the  stability  of  the  Union,  he  had  con- 

1792.  curred  in  bringing  about  an  arrangement;  not  being 
aware  at  the  time  that  this  assumption  was  soon  to  be- 
come one  of  the  principal  grounds  of  opposition  to  the 
financial  policy  of  the  government,  of  which  opposition 
he  was  himself  to  be  the  leader. 

"  If  it  has  been  supposed,"  the  letter  adds,  u  that  I 
have  ever  intrigued  among  the  members  of  the  Legisla- 
ture to  defeat  the  plans  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
it  is  contrary  to  all  truth.  As  I  never  had  the  desire  to 
influence  the  members,  so  neither  had  I  any  other  means 
than  my  friendships,  which  I  valued  too  highly  to  risk 
by  usurpations  on  their  freedom  of  judgment,  and  the 
conscientious  pursuit  of  their  own  sense  of  duty."  He 
had  not  intrigued,  it  seems,  he  had  only  denounced ;  for 
the  letter  immediately  adds,  "  That  I  have  utterly,  in 
my  private  conversations,  disapproved  of  the  system  of 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  I  acknowledge  and  avow, 
and  this  was  not  merely  a  speculative  difference.  His 
system  flowed  from  principles  adverse  to  liberty,  and  was 
calculated  to  undermine  and  demolish  the  republic,  by 
creating  an  influence  of  his  department  over  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Legislature.  I  saw  this  influence  actually 
produced,  and  its  first  fruits  to  be  the  establishment  of 
the  great  outlines  of  his  project  by  the  votes  of  the  very 
persons  who,  having  swallowed  his  bait,  were  laying 
themselves  out  to  profit  by  his  plans  ;  and  that,  had  these 
persons  withdrawn,  as  those  interested  in  a  question  ever 
should,  the  vote  of  the  disinterested  majority  was  clearly 
the  reverse  of  what  they  made  it.  These  were  no  longer, 
then,  the  votes  of  the  representatives  of  the  people,  but 
of  deserters  from  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  people, 
and  it  was  impossible  to  consider  their  decision,  whion 


HAMILTON    AND    JEFFERSON. 

Had  nothing  in  view  but  to  enrich  themselves,  as  the  SHAPTEB 

measures  of  the  fair  majority,  which  ought  always  to  be 

respected."  Not  content  with  thus  denouncing  his  rival,  1792 
as  having  secured  the  control  of  Congress  by  corrupt 
means,  Jefferson  proceeded  to  conjure  up  similar  dangers 
yet  to  come.  "  If  what  was  actually  done  begat  unea- 
siness in  those  who  wished  for  virtuous  government,  what 
was  further  proposed  was  not  less  threatening  to  the 
friends  of  the  Constitution.  For,  in  a  report  on  the  sub- 
ject of  manufactures  (still  to  be  acted  on),  it  was  ex- 
pressly assumed  that  the  general  government  has  a  right 
to  exercise  all  powers  which  may  be  far  the  general  wel- 
fare ;  that  is  to  say,  all  the  legitimate  powers  of  govern- 
ment, since  no  government  has  a  legitimate  right  to  do 
what  is  not  for  the  welfare  of  the  governed.  There  was, 
indeed,  a  sham  limitation  of  the  universality  of  this  power 
to  cases  where  money  is  to  be  employed.  But  about 
what  is  it  that  money  can  not  be  employed  ?  Thus  the 
object  of  these  plans,  taken  together,  is  to  draw  all  the 
powers  of  government  into  the  hands  of  the  general  Leg- 
islature, to  establish  means  for  corrupting  a  sufficient 
corps  in  that  Legislature  to  divide  the  honest  votes  and 
preponderate  by  their  own  the  scale  which  suited,  and  to 
have  that  corps  under  the  command  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  for  the  purpose  of  subverting,  step  by  step, 
the  principles  of  the  Constitution,  which  he  has  so  often 
declared  a  thing  of  nothing,  which  must  be  changed." 

But  while  Jefferson  had  thus,  in  his  own  opinion,  very 
delicately  and  scrupulously  abstained  from  any  interfer- 
ence with  the  Treasury  Department — contenting  himself 
with  privately  denouncing  to  such  members  of  Congress 
as  he  was  intimate  with,  and,  indeed,  to  the  president 
himself,  the  whole  policy  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury as  totally  corrupt,  both  in  theory  and  practice,  and 


366  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

CHAPTER  threatening  speedy  destruction  to  the  liberties  of  the  conn- 
'       try — Hamilton,  he  complained,  had  exhibited  no  such 
1792.  delicacy  toward  him.      The  management  of  foreign  af- 
fairs belonged  to  his  department,  yet  Hamilton  had  re- 
peatedly interfered,  "  by  cabals  with  members  of  the  Leg- 
islature, and  high-toned  declamations  on  other  occasions/' 
to  defeat  Jefferson's  favorite  scheme  of  discriminating  du- 
ties in  favor  of  France  and  to  the  disadvantage  of  En- 
gland, and  to  force  down  his  own  system  of  equal  duties 
upon  all  imports,  whether  from  nations  in  treaty  or  not. 
Having  thus  explained  his  differences  with  Hamilton 
as  arising  solely  out  of  a  disinterested  devotion  on  his 
part  to  the  purity  of  the  administration  and  the  liberties 
of  the  country,  while  Hamilton  was  the  desperate  enemy 
of  both,  Jefferson's  letter  proceeds  to  advert,  in  the  same 
bitter  spirit,  to  the  recent  strictures  on  his  conduct,  pub- 
lished under  the  signature  of  "an  American,"  but  which, 
from  "  their  style,  manner,  and  venom,"  he  did  not  hes- 
itate to  ascribe  to  Hamilton.      The  charge  of  anti-Fed 
eralism  he  pronounces  "  most  false,"  and  attempts  to  re- 
tort it  upon  Hamilton.      The  charge  of  being  opposed  to 
the  payment  of  the  public  debt  is  disposed  of  in  the 
same  cursory  manner.     According  to  his  account,  the 
difference  between  him  and  Hamilton  was  this  :  he  would 
wish  the  debt  paid  to-morrow,  while  Hamilton  wished  it 
never  to  be  paid,  but  always  to  be  a  thing  wherewith  to 
corrupt  and  manage  the  Legislature.     But  how  the  debt 
could  have  been  paid  to-morrow,  or  paid  at  all — unless 
drawing  a  sponge  through  it  was  to  be  called  payment — 
without  a  funding  system,  the  same  in  its  general  feat- 
ures with  that  actually  adopted,  and  against  which  he 
raised  such  perpetual  clamors,   neither  on  this  nor  on 
any  other  occasion  did  Jefferson  ever  attempt  to  explain, 
The  whole  burden,  in  fact,  of  his  objections  to  the  fund 


HAMILTON    AND    JEFFERSON.  3(37 

ing  system  might,  by  critical  examination,  be  resolved  CHAPTEB 
into  this — the  leading  position  in  public  affairs  which  . 

Hamilton,  as  the  author  of  it,  had  been  enabled  to  assume.  1792. 

But  the  most  curious  part  of  this  letter  was  Jeffer- 
son's exculpation  of  himself  from  the  charge  of  connec- 
tion with  Freneau's  Gazette,  especially  considering  the 
very  remarkable  coincidence  of  spirit,  opinions,  feelings, 
and  even  expressions,  between  this  very  letter  and  that 
newspaper.  After  repeated  applications  made  to  him 
on  Freneau's  behalf,  such  was  his  statement — he  does 
not  say  by  whom,  but  no  doubt  by  Madison,  the  mu- 
tual friend  of  both  parties,  and  whom  Hamilton  had 
pointed  out  in  his  articles  as  the  active  party  in  setting 
up  the  National  Gazette — a  vacancy  having  happened, 
shortly  after  the  removal  of  the  government  to  Philadel- 
phia, in  one  of  the  four  clerkships,  the  only  patronage 
attached  to  his  office,  he  had  given  that  place  to  Fre- 
neau.  The  place,  however,  was  a  paltry  one,  the  salary 
being  only  $250  per  annum.  Whether  it  was  before 
or  after  this  appointment  he  could  not  tell,  but  he  was 
very  well  pleased  to  hear  that  Freneau  intended  to  set 
up  a  newspaper.  Indeed,  he  had  been  anxious,  and  had 
already  ineffectually  attempted,  in  one  or  two  other  news- 
papers, to  bring  under  Washington's  eye  and  before  the 
public  the  most  material  parts  of  the  Leyden  Gazette, 
in  order  to  give  a  juster  view  of  the  affairs  of  Europe 
and  of  the  progress  of  events  in  France  than  could  be  ob- 
tained by  the  commonly  published  extracts  from  the  En- 
glish papers.  The  union  of  the  business  of  editor  of  a 
newspaper  with  that  of  translating  clerk  seemed  to  af- 
ford an  excellent  opportunity  to  give  effect  to  this  idea ; 
and  he  had  accordingly  furnished  Freneau  with  the  Ley- 
den  Gazettes  as  they  came,  and  had  expressed  a  wish 
that  he  would  translate  and  insert  their  most  material 


368  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  parts.  As  this  was  about  the  time  that  the  writings 
of  Publicola  and  the  Discourses  on  Davilla  were  exciting 
a  good  deal  of  public  attention,  and  as  Freneau  was  rec- 
ommended to  him  as  a  good  Whig,  he  took  it  for  granted 
that  free  place  would  be  given  in  the  new  paper  to  pieces 
against  the  aristocratical  and  monarchical  principles  of 
those  writers.  Perhaps  he  had  recommended  the  paper 
on  that  ground ;  but  in  doing  so  he  had  looked  only  to 
the  chastisement  of  the  aristocratical  and  monarchical 
writers,  and  not  to  any  criticisms  on  the  proceedings  of 
the  government.  Out  of  regard  for  Freneau  as  a  man 
of  genius,  he  had  obtained  subscriptions  for  his  paper 
both  before  its  publication  and  since ;  but  he  disclaimed 
any  responsibility  whatever  for  its  contents,  protesting, 
"  in  the  presence  of  Heaven,"  that,  except  as  to  the  ex- 
tracts from  the  Leyden  Gazette,  he  had  never  given  any 
indication  of  a  wish  how  the  paper  should  be  conducted 
"  I  can  further  protest,"  so  ran  the  letter,  "  in  the  same 
awful  presence,  that  I  never  did,  by  myself  or  any  other, 
directly  or  indirectly,  write,  dictate,  or  procure  any  one 
sentence  or  sentiment  to  be  inserted  in  his  or  any  othei 
gazette  to  which  my  name  was  not  affixed  or  that  of 
my  office.  I  surely  need  not  except  here  a  thing  so  for- 
eign to  my  present  subject  as  a  little  paragraph  about 
our  Algerine  captives,  which  I  put  once  into  Fenno's 
paper." 

Nothing,  indeed,  could  be  more  different  or  remarkable 
than  the  positions  respectively  occupied  by  Jefferson  and 
Hamilton  in  relation  to  the  public  press.  Jefferson  al- 
ways spoke  of  the  newspapers  with  all  the  marked  con- 
tempt of  old-fashioned  times,  as  little  better  than  vehicles 
of  slander  and  abuse.  He  affected  not  to  read  them,  and 
to  write  for  them  he  seemed  to  think  a  degradation  or 
worse.  Yet  no  one  was  better  aware  than  he  of  theii 


HAMILTON    AND    JEFFERSON.  359 

cifects  on  public  opinion,  whether  by  way  of  argument  CHAPTER 
or  of  declamation  and  personal  attack.  No  one  felt-  their  ' 
stings  more  acutely,  or  was  more  anxious  to  turn  even  1792. 
their  most  poisoned  weapons  against  his  opponents.  Fre- 
neau  was  not  the  only  newspaper  editor,  as  we  shall  have 
occasion  hereafter  to  see,  with  whom  he  formed  pretty 
intimate  relations,  and  who  became  the  emphatic  expo- 
nents of  his  bitter  and  not  always  very  scrupulous  en- 
mities, however  he  might  himself  abstain  from  formal 
and  actual  authorship.  As  cautious  how  he  committed 
himself  in  print  as  he  was  free-spoken  in  his  private 
correspondence,  of  all  the  men  of  the  Revolution  capable 
of  producing  a  newspaper  essay,  Jefferson  was  perhaps 
the  only  one  who  never  touched  pen  to  paper  for  the 
political  enlightenment  of  the  cotemporaneous  public. 
But  that  which  he  avoided  to  do  himself,  he  was  con- 
stantly stimulating  others  to  do,  of  which  frequent  in- 
stances will  appear  in  the  progress  of  this  history. 

Hamilton,  on  the  other  hand,  had  first  raised  himself 
to  notice,  while  yet  a  mere  boy  at  college,  by  his  con- 
tributions to  the  newspapers  in  defense  of  colonial  rights. 
After  the  conclusion  of  the  war,  the  same  vigorous  pen, 
employed  in  the  same  way,  had  exercised  a  decisive  in- 
fluence upon  several  important  questions  of  the  state  .v 
policy  of  New  York  ;  and,  in  the  well-known  numbers  of 
the  Federalist,  had  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Federal  Constitution.  Finding  himself  and 
the  whole  policy  of  the  federal  government,  of  which  he 
was  so  conspicuous  a  member,  the  objects  of  constant 
attack  on  the  part  of  a  newspaper  which  seemed  to  be 
mainly  devoted  to  that  single  purpose,  he  did  not  esteem 
it  any  sacrifice  of  his  personal  dignity  to  unmask  through 
a  similar  medium  the  real  assailants,  and  to  carry  the 
war  into  the  camp  of  the  enemy.  Jefferson  affected  to 


370  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  consider  the  attack  and  the  defense  of  the  government 
.  in  the  two  gazettes  of  Freneau  and  Fenno,  as  a  sort  of 

1792.  private  controversy  between  two  obscure  newspaper  ri- 
vals, which  the  government  ought  to  be  altogether  too 
dignified  to  concern  itself  about  in  any  way,  and  Hamil- 
ton as  having  greatly  committed  the  decorum  and  even 
decency  of  the  administration  by  condescending  to  enlist 
himself  in  the  quarrel  as  an  anonymous  writer.  Hamil- 
ton, on  the  other  hand,  considered  it  in  no  respect  be- 
neath his  dignity,  either  as  a  man  or  a  minister,  to  pun- 
ish with  his  own  pen  assaults  upon  the  government 
which  he  esteemed  as  dangerous  as  they  were  unjustifi- 
able, and  which,  though  made  in  the  name  of  Freneau, 
came,  as  he  believed,  in  spirit  and  in  substance,  if  not  ir 
form,  from  Jefferson  himself.  He  could  hardly  be  called, 
in  this  case,  an  anonymous  writer.  The  authorship  of 
his  pieces  was  recognized  at  once  ;  no  attempt  was  made 
to  conceal  it ;  nor  did  Hamilton  resort  to  any  shuffling 
to  evade  his  responsibility  in  the  matter.  To  be  pub- 
lished without  a  name  might  be  said  to  be  of  the  essence 
of  newspaper  compositions.  To  have  come  out  under  his 
own  name  in  retort  upon  anonymous  adversaries,  apart 
from  other  objections  to  it,  would  have  been  a  piece  of 
singularity  which  Hamilton  had  too  much  tact  to  adopt 
Jefferson's  letter  concluded  with  intimating  his  inten- 
tion to  retire  from  office  at  the  close  of  Washington's 
current  term.  While  dwelling  on  his  own  disregard  of 
honors  and  emoluments,  and  his  consciousness  of  having 
merited  the  esteem  of  his  countrymen  by  an  integrity 
which  could  not  be  reproached,  and  an  enthusiastic  de- 
votion to  their  rights  and  liberty,  he  could  not  refrain 
from  again  denouncing  Hamilton  as  a  man  whose  history, 
"from  the  moment  history  could  stoop  to  notice  him," 
was  "  a  tissue  of  machinations  against  the  liberty  of  a 


HAMILTON    AND    JEFFERSON. 

country  wh:3h  had  not  only  received  and  fed  him,  but  CHAPTEB 

heaped  its  honors  on  his  head."  

It  does  not  appear  that  Washington  made  any  reply  1792- 
to  this  very  passionate  and  acrimonious  letter ;  but  Jef- 
ferson has  left  us  in  his  Ana  the  record  of  a  conver- 
sation in  respect  to  it  which  took  place  at  Mount  Ver- 
non  a  few  weeks  afterward,  where  he  had  called  on  his  Oct.  l 
way  to  Philadelphia.  In  expressing  his  regret  at  Jeffer- 
son's resolution,  in  which  he  seemed  so  fixed,  to  retire 
from  office,  Washington  observed  that  his  own  mind  was 
not  yet  made  up  whether  to  serve  another  term  or  not. 
This  Jefferson  again  urged  him  to  do.  He  was  the  only 
person  in  the  United  States  who  possessed  the  confidence 
of  the  whole  ;  there  was  no  other  who  would  be  thought 
any  thing  more  than  the  head  of  a  party.  Washington 
also  declared  his  concern  at  the  length  to  which  matters 
had  gone  between  Hamilton  and  Jefferson.  He  knew 
there  was  a  difference  in  their  political  sentiments,  but 
he  was  not  before  aware  that  it  had  gone  the  length  of 
personal  hostility,  and  he  wished  he  could  act  as  medi- 
ator. He  thought  it  important  to  preserve  the  check 
of  Jefferson's  opinions  in  the  cabinet,  in  order  to  keep 
things  in  their  proper  channel,  and  so  to  prevent  any 
going  too  far.  As  to  the  idea,  however,  of  transforming 
the  government  into  a  monarchy,  he  did  not  believe  there 
were  ten  men  in  the  United  States,  whose  opinions  were 
worthy  of  attention,  who  entertained  such  a  thought. 
Jefferson  contended,  on  the  other  hand,  that  there  was  a 
numerous  sect  who  had  monarchy  in  contemplation,  and 
that  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  was  one  of  them. 
He  had  heard  him  say  that  the  Constitution  was  a  shilly- 
shally thing,  of  mere  milk  and  water,  which  could  not 
last,  and  was  only  good  as  a  step  to  something  better. 
To  Jefferson's  complaints  of  corruption  in  the  Legisla- 


372  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  ture,  and  a  squadron  there  devoted  to  the  nod  of  the 
'       treasury,  Washington  replied  that,  to  a  certain  degree, 

1  792.  an  interested  spirit  in  the  Legislature  was  what  could 
not  be  avoided  in  any  government,  unless  particular  de- 
scriptions of  men,  such  as  holders  of  the  funds,  were  to 
be  excluded  from  all  office.  With  respect  to  the  funding 
system,  he  remarked  that,  in  the  great  diversity  of  opin- 
ions about  it,  some  thinking  it  very  bad  and  others  very 
good,  experience  only  could  decide.  Desperate  affairs, 
and  lost  credit  suddenly  re-established,  seemed  to  him  tc 
be  an  argument  in  its  favor. 

This  same  idea  of  a  reconciliation  was  strongly  urged 
in  a  letter  to  Jefferson  shortly  after  Washington's  return 

Oct  18.  to  Philadelphia.  This  was  in  reply  to  a  note  of  Jeffer- 
son's, inclosing  extracts  from  letters  to  several  of  his 
friends,  written  while  the  Federal  Constitution  was  under 
consideration,  and  tending  to  show  that  his  opposition  tc 
it  had  not  been  so  very  decided.  Washington  declared,  in 
reply,  that  no  such  evidence  was  necessary  to  convince 
him  of  Jefferson's  attachment  to  the  Constitution  and 
disposition  to  promote  the  general  welfare  of  the  country. 
He  believed  the  views  of  both  Jefferson  and  Hamilton 
to  be  "  pure  and  well  meant."  "  Why,  then,  when 
some  of  the  best  citizens  in  the  United  States,  men  of 
discernment,  uniform  and  tried  patriots,  who  have  nc 
sinister  views  to  promote,  but  are  chaste  in  their  ways 
of  thinking  and  acting,  are  to  be  found  some  on  one  side 
and  some  on  the  other  of  the  questions  which  have  caused 
theso  agitations,  should  either  of  you  be  so  tenacious  of 
your  opinions  as  to  make  no  allowances  for  those  of  the 
other  ?  I  could,  and  indeed  was  about  to  add  more  on 
this  interesting  subject,  but  will  forbear,  at  least  for  the 
present,  after  expressing  a  wish  that  the  cup  which  has 
been  presented  to  us  may  not  be  snatched  from  our  lips 


RESISTANCE  TO  THE  EXCISE.        373 

by  a  discordance  of  action,  when,  I  am  persuaded,  there  CHAPTEH 

is  no  discordance  in  views.      I  have  a  great,  a  sincere  es- 

teem  and  regard  for  you  both,  and  ardently  wish  that  some  1792. 
line  may  be  marked  out  by  which  both  of  you  could  walk." 

While  Washington  was  employed  in  this  difficult,  and, 
indeed,  hopeless  task  of  attempting  to  restore  harmony 
to  his  cabinet,  resistance  to  the  excise  on  domestic  spir- 
its, notwithstanding  the  general  submission  to  it,  had 
reached  such  a  pitch  in  two  or  three  districts  as  to  call 
for  direct  executive  interference. 

One  chief  seat  of  this  opposition  was  in  North  Carolina, 
especially  in  the  central  counties,  the  region  of  the  old 
Regulators  and  of  the  Tory  strength  during  the  Revolu- 
tion. But  a  resistance  still  more  formidable  was  made 
in  the  four  counties  of  Pennsylvania  west  of  the  Alle- 
ganies.  These  counties  had  been  principally  settled  by 
Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians,  a  race  of  men  of  great  energy 
and  decision,  but  never  distinguished  for  quiet  or  subor- 
dination, and  whose  hasty  and  ferocious  temper  had  al- 
ready more  than  once  stained  the  history  of  Pennsylvania 
with  blood.  The  dispute,  long  kept  up  between  Virginia 
and  Pennsylvania,  as  to  the  jurisdiction  of  this  region,  had 
tended  to  increase  the  lawlessness  of  the  inhabitants,  and 
the  same  resistance  which  they  had  formerly  opposed  to 
the  excise  law  of  Pennsylvania  they  now  carried  to  still 
greater  extremities  against  that  of  the  United  States. 

So  far  from  being  confined  to  a  few  obscure  or  directly 
interested  persons,  as  had  been  the  case  elsewhere,  this 
opposition  was  encouraged  and  inflamed  by  many  of  the 
most  influential  and  intelligent  of  the  inhabitants.  Com- 
mittees had  been  organized  to  oppose  the  enforcement  of 
the  law  on  the  same  plan  with  those  employed  against 
British  authority  at  the  commencement  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, and  tarrings  and  featherings,  and  other  violent  out- 


374  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  rages,  had  been  resorted  to  foi  the  punishment  and  tsrroi 
.  of  the  federal  officers  and  oth  ?rs  who  lent  their  services 

1790.  and  assistance  toward  the  enfjrcement  of  the  law. 

Washington  county?  in  the  extreme  southwestern  cor- 
ner of  the  state,  between  the  Monongahela  and  the  Vir- 
ginia line,  was  the  most  violent  of  all.  Such  was  the 
report  made  by  Clyrner,  who  had  been  appointed  super- 
visor for  Pennsylvania,  and  who  had  visited  the  western 
counties,  that  he  might  personally  inspect  the  condition 
of  things.  Bradford,  a  native  of  Maryland,  who  had 
formerly  advocated,  with  much  warmth,  the  erection  of 
the  western  counties  into  a  separate  state,  and  who  was 
now  the  prosecuting  officer  for  Washington  county,  was 
one  leader ;  another  was  Marshall,  an  early  settler,  orig- 
inally from  the  north  of  Ireland,  a  man  of  large  prop- 
erty, and  also  holding  office  as  registrar  of  the  county. 
Fayette  county,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Monongahela, 
in  which  Smilie  and  Gallatin  were  the  most  influential 
persons,  was  hardly  more  moderate,  though  fewer  acts  of 
violence  had  been  perpetrated  there.  Under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  canny  and  cautious  Findley,  whom  we  have 
met  with  already  as  a  member  of  Congress,  and  who 
became  ultimately  a  conspicuous  leader  of  the  opposition, 
Westmoreland  county,  at  the  western  foot  of  the  mount- 
ains, had  been  kept  out  of  combinations  and  committees; 
but  the  officers  had  no  better  treatment  there  than  in 
Washington  and  Fayette.  Allegany  county,  in  which 
Pittsburg  was  situated,  had  been  less  violent  in  opposi- 
tion, yet  there  were  among  the  inhabitants  none  who  had 
courage  enough  to  advocate  the  law.  According  to  Cly- 
mer,  the  influence  of  Smilie  and  Findley,  who  were  great 
anti-Federalists,  had  destroyed  all  regard  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  for  which  purpose  they  used 
the  excise  as  an  instrument ;  indeed,  Clj  mer  designated 


RESISTANCE  TO  THE  EXCISE.        375 

Findley  as  the  father  of  all  the  disturbances  in  the  west-  CHA^TEI 

ern  country.      Individuals  there  were  who  thought  right- 

ly,  but  all  the  men  of  distinction  were  either  sordid  shop-  1792. 
keepers,  crafty  lawyers,  or  candidates  for  office,  not  in- 
clined to  make  personal  sacrifices  to  truth  and  honor ; 
nor,  in  Clymer's  opinion,  were  the  duties  of  citizenship 
likely  to  be  well  understood  where  the  moral  sense  was 
so  generally  depraved  by  the  intemperate  use  of  the  fa- 
vorite drink. 

The  immediate  inducement  to  this  visit  of  Clymer's 
was  a  sort  of  convention  of  the  four  counties,  held  at  Pitts-  Aug.  2i. 
burg,  of  which  Gallatin  had  been  secretary,  and  at  which 
Smilie  and  several  other  influential  persons  had  been 
present ;  a  repetition,  in.  fact,  of  a  similar  convention  held 
there  the  year  before.  A  remarkable  series  of  resolu- 
tions, drawn  up  by  a  committee  of  which  Gallatin,  Brad- 
ford, and  Marshall  were  members,  had  been  adopted  at 
this  meeting.  After  denouncing  the  excise  as  unjust, 
dangerous  to  liberty,  oppressive  to  the  poor,  and  particu- 
larly oppressive  to  the  Western  country,  where  grain  could 
only  be  disposed  of  by  distilling  it,  these  resolutions  de- 
clared a  fixed  intention  to  persist  in  remonstrances  and 
in  every  other  "  legal  measure"  that  might  obstruct  the 
collection  of  the  tax.  They  expressed,  also,  a  determin- 
ation to  have  no  dealings  nor  intercourse  with  any  per- 
son who  might  take  office  to  execute  the  law,  but  to  treat 
all  such  persons  with  contempt,  and  to  withdraw  from 
them  every  comfort  and  assistance.  A  committee  of  cor- 
respondence was  appointed,  and  the  adoption  of  a  like 
course  was  recommended  to  the  people  at  large. 

"By  way  of  reply  to  these  high-handed  proceedings,  the 
president  had  issued  a  proclamation,  exhorting  all  persons  Sept.  m 
to  desist  from  unlawful  combinations,  and  charging  all 
magistrates  and  courts  to  use  their  utmost  endeavors  to 


376  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  bring  infractors  of  the  law  to  justice.  Washington,  at 
'  this  moment,  was  absent  at  Mount  Vernon,  on  his  sec- 
1792.  ond  visit ;  and  the  proclamation,  drafted  by  Hamilton, 
Knox,  and  Randolph,  who  remained  at  Philadelphia  in 
the  management  of  affairs,  was  sent  thither  for  his  sig- 
nature, and  then  to  Jefferson,  at  Monticello,  to  be  coun- 
tersigned by  him,  a  formality  which  Washington  partic- 
ularly insisted  on.  Orders  were  likewise  given  to  Ran- 
dolph, at  Hamilton's  suggestion,  to  commence  prosecu- 
.tions  against  those  concerned  in  the  Pittsburg  meeting  j 
but  that  proceeding  had  to  be  abandoned,  as  the  attorney 
general  could  find  no  law  on  which  it  could  be  based. 

In  North  Carolina  the  proclamation  of  the  president 
seems  to  have  answered  a  good  purpose.  Little  further 
resistance  to  the  excise  occurred  in  that  quarter.  But 
in  Western  Pennsylvania  the  opposition  still  continued 
so  general  and  determined  as  effectually  to  prevent  the 
collection  of  the  tax. 

To  the  conduct  of  these  Western  demagogues,  in  stir- 
ring  up  a  violent  opposition  to  the  law  of  the  land,  the 
cotemporaneous  behavior  of  Chief  Justice  Jay  exhibited 
a  striking  and  honorable  contrast.  Jay  had  been  select- 
ed as  the  federal  candidate  for  governor  of  New  York 
in  opposition  to  Clinton,  and,  after  a  very  warm  and  ex- 
cited canvass,  his  election  had  been  carried  by  a  majority 
of  about  four  hundred  votes.  The  duty  of  canvassing 
the  returns  and  declaring  the  result  belonged  to  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Legislature,  of  whom  a  majority  were 
friends  of  Governor  Clinton.  That  majority  took  ad- 
vantage of  some  very  nice  and  doubtful  technical  objec- 
tions as  to  the  persons  by  whom  the  returns  had  been 
forwarded  to  reject  the  votes  of  three  counties,  after 
which,  against  the  protest  of  four  of  their  number,  they 
jane,  pronounced  Clinton  to  be  elected  by  a  majority  of  about 


AFFAIRS    OF    NEW    YORK.  377 

a   hundred  votes.      Rufus   King    gave    a  written   legal  CHAPTEU 

opinion  that  as  the  alleged  informalities  depended  upon  a 

very  strict  construction  of  the  statute,  and  operated  to  1792  = 
deprive  bona  fide  electors  of  their  right  of  suffrage,  no 
attention  ought  to  be  paid  to  them — a  view  of  the  mat- 
ter  now  universally  adopted  in  similar  cases.  But  the 
decision  made  by  the  canvassers  was  supported  by  the 
counter-opinion  of  Aaron  Burr,  who  from  this  time  as- 
sumed a  rank  in  the  anti-Federal  party  of  New  York 
second  only,  and  not  long  even  second,  to  that  of  Clin- 
ton himself.  The  Federalists  were  violently  excited, 
and  even  talked  of  refusing  to  recognize  Clinton  as  gov- 
ernor. Instead  of  inflaming  their  passions  and  stim- 
ulating them  to  a  course  which  could  only  end  in  con- 
fusion and  disorder,  Jay  did  his  utmost  to  calm  the  ex- 
citement, and  to  induce  his  friends  patiently  to  submit 
to  a  decision  which,  however  it  might  seem  dictated  by 
a  selfish  disregard  of  popular  rights  and  a  determination 
to  secure  a  party  triumph  at  all  hazards,  had  yet  been 
made  by  a  competent  authority,  and  was  therefore  enti- 
tled to  respect  and  obedience.  The  best  way,  so  Jay 
told  his  friends,  was  to  wait  till  the  next  election,  leav- 
ing it  to  the  ballot-box  to  set  the  matter  right. 

During  the  late  session  of  Congress,  Philadelphia  had 
been  visited  by  deputations  from  the  Six  Nations,  ob- 
tained through  the  influence  of  Kirkland  the  missionary, 
and  from  the  Cherokees,  sent  on  by  Governor  Blount  to 
confirm  the  recent  treaty.  These  deputations  had  been 
dismissed,  well  satisfied  with  their  reception.  The  an- 
nual payment  to  the  Cherokees  had  been  raised  to  $1500. 
A.  similar  annual  payment  had  been  promised  to  the  Six 
Nations,  to  be  expended  in  clothing,  in  domestic  animals 
and  implements  of  husbandry,  and  in  procuring  black- 
smiths and  other  artificers  to  reside  in  the  Indian  vjl- 


378  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  lages.      Hendricks,  chief  of  the  Stockbridge  tribe,  now 

__J associated  with  the  Six  Nations,  promised,  in  return,  tc 

1792.  make  a  new  attempt  to  pacify  the  hostile  nations  of  the 
West.  Still,  however,  there  was  much  occasion  for 
anxiety  in  the  existing  state  of  Indian  affairs.  Accord- 
ing to  Seagrove,  late  commissioner  to  Florida  to  nego- 
tiate for  the  return  of  runaway  slaves,  and  recently  ap- 
pointed agent  for  the  Creeks,  the  Spaniards  were  determ- 
ined to  prevent  the  carrying  out  of  the  treaty  of  New 
York  with  that  confederacy.  M'Gillivray  was  said  to 
be  growing  unfriendly,  and  to  be  disposed  to  accept  a 
Spanish  agency.  Nor  was  this  the  only  difficulty.  The 
frontier  inhabitants  of  Georgia,  greatly  dissatisfied  with 
the  stipulations  of  the  treaty  as  to  the  Indian  boundary 
line,  were  strongly  disposed  to  provoke  a  war.  "  To 
such  lengths  have  matters  gone,"  wrote  Seagrove,  "  that 
they  now  consider  the  troops  and  servants  of  the  United 
States  who  are  placed  among  them  nearly  as  great  ene- 
mies as  they  do  the  Indians,  and  for  no  other  reason 
than  that  they  recommend  moderation,  and  a  compli- 
ance with  the  laws  of  the  land."  In  reference  to  this 
state  of  things,  a  letter  was  addressed  by  the  War  De- 
partment to  Telfair,  the  governor  of  Georgia ;  but  the 
state  authorities  sympathized  strongly  with  the  popular 
sentiment. 

The  settlements  about  Nashville  had  been  repeatedly 
attacked  in  the  course  of  the  two  last  years,  as  was 
supposed,  by  marauding  parties  from  the  Upper  Creeks. 
More  than  a  hundred  persons  within  that  period  had  been 
killed  or  taken  prisoners.  Other  like  depredations,  though 
not  so  numerous,  had  occurred  in  the  eastern  district  of 
Tennessee,  and  on  the  western  frontier  of  South  Carolina 
and  Georgia.  The  five  Lower  Cherokee  towns,  whose 
intercourse  was  frequent  with  the  Shawanese,  had  been 


[NDIAN    RELATIONS.  379 

in  a  state  of  agitation  since  St.  Glair's  defeat,  and  were  CHAPTER 
only  restrained  by  great  exertions  on  the  part  of  the         ' 
friendly  chiefs  from  open  hostilities.    According  toBlount,  1792. 
horse-stealing  was  one  principal  source  of  trouble  with 
the  Southern  tribes.      Under  the  management  of  certain 
refugee  whites  who  resided  among  them,  this  had  been 
reduced  to  a  complete  system.      The  Indians  were  insti- 
gated to  steal  the  horses,  which  were  conveyed  to  a  dis- 
tance, and  in  a   short  time   to   the   sea-board  for  sale. 
Upon  this  subject  the  backwoodsmen  were  very  sore,  and 
it  was  impossible  to  restrain  them  from  taking  satisfac- 
tion, as  they  called  it,  by  now  and  then  killing  an  In- 
dian.     This  led  to   murders   on   the   other  side,  not  to 
mention  occasional  encounters  in  cases  of  fresh  pursuit. 

To  raise  the  army  voted  for  the  Northwestern  cam- 
paign, to  which  was  given  the  name  of  the  Legion  of 
the  United  States,  was  a  work  of  time  and  difficulty. 
The  small  rate  of  wages  allowed  to  the  soldiers  held  out 
no  great  encouragement  to  engage  in  so  hard  and  dan- 
gerous a  service.  Among  those  enlisted  were  many  im- 
proper persons,  mere  boys  or  vagabonds,  one  consequence 
of  which  was  that  desertions  were  very  numerous.  The 
demoralization  of  the  recruits  was  completed  by  the 
bands  of  whisky-traders  by  whom  they  were  surrounded. 
The  support  of  these  troops,  as  they  were  sent  forward  to 
the  scene  of  operations,  grew  more  and  more  expensive, 
as  all  supplies  had  to  be  transported  a  great  distance. 

While  preparations  were  going  on,  with  as  much  en- 
orgy  as  circumstances  would  permit,  for  subduing  the 
Northwestern  Indians  by  force,  attempts  were  also  made 
to  open  a  negotiation  which  might  lead  to  pacific  ar- 
rangements. Major  Trueman,  who  carried  a  concilia- 
tory speech  from  the  president,  and  Colonel  Hardin,  who 
volunteered  on  this  dangerous  service,  both  perished  by 


380  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  hands  of  the  Indians  while  employed  on  these  mis* 

, sions  of  peace. 

1792,       Attempts  were  also  made  to  procure  auxiliaries  from 
among  the  Creeks  and  other  Southern  tribes ;   and  for 
this  and  other  objects,  General  Pickens  and  Governor 
Aug.     Blount,  commissioners  for  that  purpose,  held  a  treaty 
with  the  Chickasaws   and  Choctaws,  among,  whom  the 
Spaniards  of  Louisiana  were  intriguing,  with  the  design 
to  engage  them  in  the  Spanish  interest.      With  the  help 
of  the  missionary  Heckewelder,  General  Putnam  suc- 
Sept.     ceeded  in  arranging  a  treaty  of  peace  with  some  bands 
of  the  Delawares,  Wyandots,  and  Miamis,  dwelling  on 
the  Miami  and  Sandusky  rivers,  the  nearest  of  the  North- 
western Indians  to  the  Ohio  settlements.      Not  long  aft- 
er, a  grand  council,  at  which  were  present  delegations 
from  almost  all  the  Northern  tribes,  was  held  at  Au 
Glaize,  for  the  purpose  of  considering  the  relations  in 
which  they  stood  to  the  American  government ;   but  no 
white  man  was  allowed  to  be  present  except  Simon  Girty, 
whom  the  Indians  considered  as  one  of  themselves.    The 
Six  Nations,  whom  the  other  tribes  addressed  as  "Eldest 
brother,"  were  represented  at  this  council  by  Corn-plant- 
er, Red  Jacket,  and  upward  of  forty  principal  chiefs, 
who  seem  to  have  attended,  under  the  leadership  of  Hen- 
dricks,  at  the  express  desire  of  the  United  States.    They 
counseled  peace   and  a  treaty  ;   and,  though  they  were 
warmly  opposed  by  the  Shawanese,  who  took  the  lead 
for  war,  the  belligerent  Indians  finally  agreed  to  suspend 
hostilities  during  the  coming  winter,  and,  "  at  the  time 
when  the  leaves  were  fully  on,"  to  meet  the  United  States 
in  council  at  the  Rapids  of  the  Miami.     But  they  demand- 
ed,  as  a  condition  of  this  armistice,  that  the  American 
troops  should  retire  south  of  the  Ohio,  which  river  they 
still  persisted  in  claiming  as  the  true  Indian  boundary — 


INDIAN    RELATIONS  3g| 

a  claim  in  which  even  the  friendly  chiefs  of  the  Six  Na-  CHAPTEI 
tions  were  strongly  inclined  to  concur.      "  We  now  de-         ' 
sire  you,  brother,"  said  the  chiefs  of  the  Six  Nations,  in  1792. 
giving  to  the  president  an  account  of  their  mission,  "to 
send  forward  agents  who  are  men  of  sincerity,  not  proud 
land-jobbers,  but  men  who  love  and  desire  peace.    Also, 
we  desire  they  may  be  accompanied  by  some  Quakers  to 
attend  the  council."      Appointments  were  subsequently 
made  in  conformity  to  this  request ;   but  as  the  garrisons 
were   still  maintained  north  of  the  Ohio,  the  proposed 
armistice  did  not  prevent  some  skirmishing  in  the  course 
of  the  winter. 

By  the  close  of  the  season,  the  troops  in  service,  old 
and  new,  amounted  to  about  thirty-six  hundred  men. 
The  head-quarters  were  at  Pittsburg,  where  Wayne 
commanded  in  person,  and  here  the  main  body  remained 
encamped  during  the  winter.  A  small  detachment  was 
stationed  in  Georgia,  to  keep  the  peace  on  the  Creek 
frontier,  .and  others  at  Marietta  and  Fort  Washington, 
on  the  Ohio,  with  garrisons  at  Vincennes,  Fort  Jeffer- 
son, and  other  interior  posts.  But  Washington  discour- 
aged the  formation  of  new  posts,  except  such  as  were 
necessary  to  constitute  lines  of  communication. 

Washington's  personal  reasons  for  desiring  a  release 
from  the  burdens  of  office  had  been  lately  increased  by 
the  mortal  illness  of  a  nephew  on  whom  he  had  hitherto 
relied  for  the  chief  management  of  his  affairs  at  Mount 
Vernon.  It  was,  however,  sufficiently  evident  that  the 
public  wish  demanded  his  continuance,  and  there  was 
reason  to  believe  even  the  public  safety  also.  Under 
these  circumstances  he  laid  aside  his  intention  of  with- 
drawing ;  and  the  struggle  between  the  two  parties  now 
beginning  to  be  distinctly  formed  in  the  nation — opposi- 
tion to  the  funding  system  being  substituted  for  opposi- 


382  HISTORY   CF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  tion  to  the  Constitution — was  confined  to  the  question 
of  the  vice-presidency  and  the  majority  in  Congress  un- 
1792.  der  the  new  apportionment.  The  opposition  concentra- 
ted their  votes  on  George  Clinton  as  vice-president.  The 
Federalists  supported  John  Adams,  not  because  they  ap- 
proved all  his  political  theories,  but  because  they  believ- 
ed him  an  honest  and  capable  friend  of  the  Constitution. 
Washington  again  received  the  unanimous  vote  of  the 
electors,  the  number  being  increased  under  the  new  ap- 
portionment, and  by  the  admission  of  new  states,  to  a 
hundred  and  thirty.  Of  the  votes  for  the  second  candi* 
date,  Adams  received  seventy-seven  and  Clinton  fifty- 
All  the  votes  of  the  New  England  States,  including 
Rhode  Island  and  Vermont,  which  had  not  voted  at  the 
former  election,  and  the  entire  vote  of  Connecticut,  which 
had  then  been  divided,  were  given  to  Adams.  Instead 
of  one  vote  in  New  Jersey  and  eight  out  of  ten  in  Penn- 
sylvania, given  to  him  at  the  first  election,  he  now  ob- 
tained the  entire  support  of  those  two  states,  except  one 
vote  in  Pennsylvania  given  to  Clinton.  He  received, 
also  for  the  first  time,  the  entire  vote  of  Delaware  and 
Maryland,  with  six  out  of  the  seven  votes  of  South  Car- 
olina ;  but  the  five  Virginia  votes  given  to  him  at  the 
first  election  were  now  withheld.  Clinton  received  the 
entire  vote  of  New  York,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  and 
Georgia.  The  Kentucky  electors  voted  for  Jefferson  as 
their  second  candidate.  One  of  the  South  Carolina  votes 
was  given  to  Burr. 

Nov.  5  The  second  Congress,  meanwhile,  had  reassembled  for 
its  second  and  concluding  session.  In  his  opening  speech 
the  president  dwelt  at  length  on  the  state  of  Indian  re- 
lations, his  unsuccessful  efforts  to  re-establish  peace  in 
the  Northwest,  and  the  necessity  of  an  efficient  Indian 
Department  to  regulate  aTairs  on  the  frontiers  in  a  spirit 


SECOND  SESSION  OF  THE  SECOND  CONGRESS.  3  y  3 

of  justice  and  humanity,  as  the  only  means  of  security  CHAPTER 

against  perpetual  Indian  wars.      The  measures  taken  in 

consequence  of  opposition  to  the  excise  were  recited,  and  1792. 
the  president's  firm  intention  was  expressed  to  enforce 
the  collection  of  the  tax.  The  prosperous  condition  of 
the  revenue  formed  a  topic  of  congratulation,  and  the 
adoption  was  recommended  of  a  systematic  and  effectual 
arrangement  for  the  regular  redemption  of  the  public 
debt  as  fast  as  the  terms  of  the  Funding  Act  would  allow. 
An  account  was  given  of  the  progress  of  the  mint,  which 
had  already  commenced  operations  by  the  coinage  of 
half  dimes.  In  consequence  of  projects  believed  to  be 
on  foot  for  establishing  settlements  on  the  Mississippi 
within  the  territory  claimed  by  Spain,  under  color  of  the 
Georgia  Yazoo  grants,  attention  was  called  to  the  means 
of  preventing  aggressions  by  citizens  of  the  United  States 
on  the  territory  of  foreign  nations. 

.  The  report  of  the  committee  on  St.  Glair's  defeat,  made 
just  at  the  conclusion  of  the  late  session,  in  exculpating 
that  commander,  had  thrown  a  good  deal  of  blame  on  the 
quartermaster  general,  the  contractor  for  supplies,  and, 
by  implication  also,  on  the  Departments  of  War  and  the 
Treasury,  the  report  implying  that  the  army  had  not  been 
properly  provided  for,  or  money  duly  furnished  to  meet  its 
wants.  This  report  had  excited  a  good  deal  of  feeling 
on  the  part  of  the  officers  implicated,  who  desired  an  op- 
portunity to  vindicate  themselves.  The  report  being  un- 
der consideration  in  Committee  of  the  Whole,  Dayton  NJ*  tti 
moved  that  the  Secretaries  of  War  and  the  Treasury  be 
directed  to  attend  the  House,  and  to  give  such  informa- 
tion as  might  be  required.  This  motion  roused  at  once 
into  action  the  jealousy  of  executive  influence  felt  by  the 
opposition.  It  was  vehemently  resisted  as  unconstitu- 
tional, a  dangerous  precedent,  and  threatening  to  subject 


^8<?  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  House  to  the  'influence  and  control  of  the  secretaries 

y 

In  this  view  of  the  matter,  Williamson,  Tucker,  Madison, 
1792.  Giles,  Page,  Venable,  White,  Clark  of  New  Jersey,  and 
even  Murray,  Fitzsirnmons,  and  Liverrnore,  concurred. 
The  motion  was  supported  by  the  mover,  by  Ames,  Law- 
rence, Boudinot,  Gerry,  and  Smith  of  South  Carolina. 
Gerry  ridiculed  the  alarm  which  some  members  seemed 
to  evince  on  this  subject.  The  secretaries  would  attend 
merely  to  give  such  information  as  might  be  required,  not 
as  members  or  as  ministers  to  influence  the  determina- 
tions of  the  House.  The  motion,  however,  failed  to  pass, 
and  finally,  on  Madison's  suggestion,  the  matter  was  sent 
back  to  the  original  committee  for  further  investigation. 
Before  this  committee  the  secretaries  and  .other  parties 
interested  were  allowed  to  attend  for  the  purpose  of  giv- 
ing explanations — a  precedent  ever  since  followed  in 
similar  cases.  Toward  the  end  of  the  session  a  supple- 
mental report  was  made,  modifying  and  explaining  away 
many  of  the  censures  contained  in  the  first  report. 
V  >v.  19.  Another  not  less  vehement  debate  presently  arose  on 
a  motion  by  Fitzsirnmons  to  refer  that  part  of  the  presi- 
dent's message  relating  to  the  redemption  of  the  public 
debt  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  to  report  a  plan 
for  that  purpose.  This  reference,  warmly  opposed  by 
Madison,  Mercer,  Findley,  Page,  and  Baldwin,  was  sup- 
ported by  Fitzsimmons,  Williamson,  Hillhouse,  Murray, 
Smith  of  South  Carolina,  Sedgwick,  Ames,  Lawrence, 
Livermore,  and  Gerry,  as  coming  within  the  express  provi- 
sions of  the  act  establishing  the  Treasury  Department, 
Nav.  21,  and  was  finally  carried  by  thirty-two  votes  to  twenty- 
five.  Another  resolution  was  passed  at  the  same  time, 
directing  the  secretary  to  report  a  plan  for  paying  up 
at  once  the  two  millions  advanced  by  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States  as  an  offset  to  the  two  millions  subscribed 


SECOND  SESSION  OF  THE  SECOND  CONGRESS.  335 

to  the  stock  of  that  institution,  and  which,  by  the  terms  CHAPTER 

of  the  loan,  was  reimbursable  in  annual  installments  of 

$200,000,  with  interest  at  six  per  cent.  1792. 

The  idea  of  paying  off  this  debt  to  the  bank  had  orig- 
inated with  Hamilton,  who  proposed  to  appropriate  to 
that  purpose  a  part  of  the  proceeds  of  the  loans  recently 
negotiated  in  Holland  under  the  authority  formerly  given 
to  pay  off  the  over-due  installments  of  the  French  debt. 
In  consequence  of  the  dethronement  of  Louis  XVI.,  news 
of  which  had  just  arrived  in  America,  and  the  dissolution 
of  the  Legislative  Assembly,  leaving  no  authority  in 
France  at  that  moment  competent  to  give  a  discharge, 
directions  had  been  sent  to  Gouverneur  Morris  to  suspend 
payments  on  account  of  the  French  debt  until  further 
orders.  Not  to  lose  the  interest  on  this  money,  Hamil- 
ton proposed  to  appropriate  it  to  pay  off  the  debt  to  the 
bank,  authority  being  first  obtained  to  negotiate  a  new 
loan  of  two  millions  out  of  which  to  meet  the  payments 
on  the  French  debt  whenever  they  should  be  resumed. 
Not  only  would  this  arrangement  prevent  any  temporary 
loss  of  interest,  but,  should  the  new  loan  be  negotiated 
on  terms  as  favorable  as  those  recently  obtained,  an  an- 
nual saving  would  accrue  to  the  United  States  of  about 
$35,000,  the  difference  between  six  per  cent.,  the  rate 
of  interest  paid  to  the  bank,  and  the  rate  at  which  the 
latest  Dutch  loans  had  been  obtained. 

In  the  interval  between  these  references  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury  and  his  report  thereon,  some  warm 
speeches  were  made  upon  quite  a  different  topic.  Since 
the  famous  debate  upon  slavery  at  the  second  session  of 
the  first  Congress,  about  two  years  before,  that  question, 
having  been  found  so  inflammable,  had  hardly  been 
touched  upon  in  the  House,  the  administration  party 
and  the  opposition  being  both  alike  afraid  of  it.  The 
IV.— B  B 


386  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Abolition  Society  of  Pennsylvania  had  indeed  presented, 
__  at  the  last  session,  a  memorial  calling  upon  Congress  to 
1792.  exercise,  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade,  those 
powers  which,  by  the  report  of  the  Committee  of  the 
Whole,  entered  on  the  journals  of  the  House,  Congress 
had  been  declared  to  possess.  Re-enforced  by  others 
from  the  abolition  societies  of  Rhode  Island,  Connecti- 
cut, New  York,  Virginia,  and  from  several  local  socie- 
ties in  Maryland,  that  memorial  had  been  referred  to  a 
special  committee.  As  that  committee  had  made  no  re- 
port, memorials  had  been  presented  at  the  present  session 

r  from  the  abolition  societies  of  New  Hampshire  and  Mas- 

sachusetts, recalling  the  attention  of  Congress  to  the  sub- 
ject ;  but  these,  as  yet,  had  been  suffered  to  lie  upon  the 
table  without  reference.  Afterward  a  separate  petition 
had  been  presented  from  Warner  Mifflin,  a  philanthrop- 
ical  Quaker  of  Delaware,  on  the  general  subject  of  negro 
slavery,  its  injustice,  and  the  necessity  of  its  abolition. 
At  the  time  of  its  presentation,  this  document  had  been 
read  and  laid  upon  the  table  without  comment.  Two 
Nov.  26.  days  after,  Steele,  of  North  Carolina,  called  attention  to 
it  by  observing  « that,  after  what  had  passed  at  New 
York,  he  had  hoped  the  House  would  have  heard  no  more 
of  that  subject.  To  his  surprise,  he  found  the  business 
started  anew  by  a  fanatic,  who,  not  content  with  keeping 
his  own  conscience,  undertook  to  be  the  keeper  of  the 
consciences  of  other  men,  and,  in  a  manner  not  very  de- 
cent, had  obtruded  his  opinion  on  the  House."  After 
some  complaints  that  such  a  petition  should  have  been 
presented,  Steele  moved  that  it  be  returned  to  the  peti- 
tioner by  the  clerk,  and  that  the  entry  of  it  be  erased 
from  the  journal.  The  petition,  it  chanced,  had  been 
presented  by  Ames,  to  whom  Mifflin  had  applied  for  that 
purpose,  as  the  Delaware  member  happened  to  be  absent. 


RIGHT    OF    PETITION— SLAVERY.  3^7 

Ames  hastened  to  renew  the  declaration  of  his  opinion,  CHAPTEB 
expressed  in  the  debate  two  years  before,  that  Congress  __ 
could  take  no  steps  as  to  the  matter  to  which  the  me-  1792. 
morial  related.      Having  been  requested  to  present  it, 
he  had  done  so  on  the  general  principle  that  every  citizen 
had  a  right  to  petition  the  Legislature,  and  to  apply  to 
any  member  as  the  vehicle  to  convey  his  petition  to  the 
House. 

In  seconding  Steele's  motion,  Smith  of  South  Carolina 
"  admitted,  to  its  full  extent,  the  right  of  every  citizen 
to  petition  for  redress  of  grievances,  and  the  duty  of  the 
House  to  consider  such  petitions.  But  the  paper  in 
question  was  not  of  that  description.  It  was  a  mere  rant 
and  rhapsody  of  a  meddling  fanatic,  interlarded  with 
texts  of  Scripture,  and  without  any  specific  prayer.  The 
citizens  of  the  Southern  States,  finding  that  a  paper  of 
this  sort  had  been  received  by  the  House,  and  formally 
entered  on  their  journals,  might  justly  be  alarmed,  and 
led  to  believe  that  doctrines  were  countenanced  destruct- 
ive of  their  interests.  The  gentleman  who  presented  it, 
and  who,  he  observed  with  regret,  had  not  on  this  occa- 
sion displayed  his  usual  regard  for  the  Southern  States, 
had  stated  its  contents  to  relate  only  to  the  slave  trade. 
Had  he  stated  its  real  objects,  namely,  to  create  disunion 
among  the  states,  and  to  excite  the  most  horrible  insur- 
rections, the  House  would  undoubtedly  have  refused  its 
reception.  After  the  proceedings  at  New  York,  his  con- 
stituents had  a  right  to  expect  that  the  subject  would 
never  be  stirred  again.  These  applications  were  not  cal- 
culated to  meliorate  the  condition  of  those  who  were 
their  objects,  and  who  were  at  present  happy  and  con- 
tented. On  the  contrary,  by  alienating  their  affections 
from  their  masters,  and  exciting  a  spirit  of  restlessness, 
they  tended  to  make  greater  severities  necessary.  He 


HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  therefore  earnestly  called  upon  the  House,  by  agreeing 
-  to  the  present  motion,  to  convince  this  troublesome  en- 
1792.  thusiast,  and  others  who  might  be  disposed  to  communi- 
cate their  ravings  and  wild  effusions,  that  they  would 
meet  the  treatment  they  justly  deserved.  As  the  pres- 
ent application  was  disrespectful  to  the  House,  insulting 
to  the  Southern  members,  and  a  libel  on  their  constitu- 
ents, it  ought  no  longer  to  remain  on  the  table,  but 
should  be  returned  to  its  author  with  marked  disappro- 
bation." That  part  of  the  motion  relating  to  the  return 
of  the  petition  was  agreed  to ;  the  part  respecting  the 
erasure  of  the  journal  was  withdrawn  by  the  mover. 
Dec.  3.  The  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  on  the 
payment  of  the  public  debt  suggested  a  very  ingenious 
scheme.  It  appeared  by  this  report  that  up  to  1801,  when 
payments  on  the  deferred  debt  might  first  commence, 
the  amount  of  the  six  per  cent,  debt  annually  redeem- 
able by  the  terms  of  the  loans  rose  by  annual  increase 
from  $550,000  to  $1,126,000.  To  meet  these  sue 
cessive  installments,  besides  appropriating  to  that  pur 
pose  the  surplus  bank  dividends  over  and  above  the  in- 
terest payable  on  the  loan  from  the  bank,  the  secretary 
proposed  to  borrow  successive  sums  of  money  on  the 
pledge  of  taxes  to  be  annually  imposed,  sufficient,  with 
the  other  funds  above  mentioned,  not  only  to  secure  the 
interest  on  the  sums  thus  borrowed,  but  to  pay  off  the 
principal  also,  within  periods  of  from  five  years  to  one 
year  ;  these  taxes  to  be  made  permanent,  and,  after 
paying  off  the  temporary  loans  for  which  in  the  first 
place  they  were  pledged,  to  be  applied  to  the  discharge 
of  other  installments  of  the  public  debt. 

To  carry  this  scheme  into  effect,  it  would  be  neces- 
sary to  lay  in  the  first  year  new  taxes  to  the  amount  of 
$43,000,  and  in  each  <rf  the  succeeding  six  years,  other 


REPORT  ON  THE  PUBLIC  DEBT.        339 

taxes   something   above   $100,000,   amounting   in   the  CHAPTEB 

whole  to  $691,530.      I  he  application  of  these  taxes  and 

other  funds  in  the  way  proposed  would  pay  off  by  the  1792. 
first  of  January,  1802,  $6,570,223  of  the  public  debt, 
the  interest  on  which,  together  with  the  above-mentioned 
amount  of  taxes  and  the  surplus  bank  dividends,  would 
constitute  an  annual  amount  of  $1,210,747,  sufficient 
to  pay  off  the  whole  remainder  of  the  six  per  cent,  stock 
as  fast  as,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  Funding  Act, 
it  became  redeemable. 

All  the  surplus  of  the  existing  revenue — which,  after 
the  termination  of  the  Indian  war,  might  be  expected  to 
oe  very  considerable — would  thus  remain  as  a  fund  to 
meet  any  emergencies  which  the  government  might  en- 
counter ;  and  any  part  of  it  not  needed  for  current  ex- 
penses might  be  applied,  with  the  proceeds  of  the  present 
sinking  fund,  as  a  further  aid  toward  the  extinction  of 
the  debt. 

This  same  report  suggested  the  immediate  payment 
of  the  loan  from  the  bank  in  the  way  already  pointed  out. 

Hamilton's  scheme  for  paying  off  the  public  debt  proved 
a  very  bitter  pill  to  the  opposition,  not  only  as  it  went 
to  give  the  lie  to  all  the  clamor  they  had  raised,  that  he 
regarded  the  public  debt  as  a  public  blessing,  and  meant 
to  saddle  it  forever  on  the  country,  but  also  because  the 
tax  he  proposed  for  the  ensuing  year,  toward  the  carrying 
out  of  his  scheme,  was  a  tax  on  pleasure-horses  or  pleas- 
are-carriages,  as  Congress  might  elect,  either  of  which 
taxes  would  give  to  those  Southern  gentlemen  who  had 
been  so  anxious  to  extinguish  the  debt  an  opportunity  to 
contribute  their  fair  share  toward  it. 

The  proposition  for  paying  up  the  debt  to  the  bank, 
even  though  it  promised  an  annual  saving  to  the  country 
of  a  considerable  sum,  was  strcngly  suspected  by  the  op- 


390  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  position  to  be  no  better  than  a  piece  of  favoritism  toward 
.  that  institution  on  the  part  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 

1792.  ury  at  a  time  when  the  bank  was  pressed  for  money. 
News,  also,  had  lately  arrived  that  the  French  Conven- 
tion had  met,  and  the  meeting  of  that  body  was  insisted 
upon  as  a  sufficient  reorganization  of  the  French  govern- 
ment to  justify  the  resumption  of  the  payments  to  France. 
In  fact,  the  opposition  had  resolved  to  prevent,  if  possi- 
ble, any  action  at  all  in  any  matter  of  consequence  at 
the  present  session,  in  the  confident  hope  of  securing  a 
majority  in  the  new  Congress  sufficient  to  give  them  the 
control  of  affairs. 

The  gradual  redemption  of  the  six  per  cents,  and  the 
payment  of  the  loan  to  the  bank  were  referred  to  two 
separate  committees,  and  the  committee  on  paying  the 
bank  presently  reported  a  bill  based  on  the  secretary's 
Dec  34.  plan.  When  this  bill  came  up  in  Committee  of  the 
Whole,  Giles,  in  accordance  with  the  settled  tactics  of 
the  opposition,  asked  for  delay,  suggesting  also  the  idea 
of  paying  the  debt  by  selling  the  bank  stock.  Fitzsim- 
mons  replied  that  such  an  amount  of  stock  thrown  sud- 
denly on  the  market  would  sink  the  shares  below  par. 
Clark  was  opposed  to  borrowing  from  foreigners ;  he  would 
rather  pay  seven  or  eight  per  cent,  to  citizens  than  five 
to  them.  The  bill  having  been  reported  to  the  House, 
Steele  moved  to  strike  out  the  enacting  clause,  being  re- 
solved, as  he  said,  to  test  the  question  if  the  country 
was  to  go  on  in  this  pernicious  practice  of  loans.  It  was 
insisted  by  others  that  no  new  loan  was  necessary,  asj 
there  were  already  means  on  hand  to  pay  the  bank.  But 
to  this  Fitzsimmons  and  Gerry  replied  that  the  money 
in  the  treasury  was  already  pledged  to  a  specific  purpose, 
and  could  not  be  applied  to  any  other  till  means  had  first 
been  provided  for  replacing  it.  Williamson  thought  it 


TRIUMPH    OF    THE    OPPOSITION.  39) 

would  be  unjust  to  the  private  stockholders  for  the  gov-  CHAPTER 

ernment  to  depreciate  the  value  of  the  bank  stock  by 

throwing  all  theirs  into  the  market ;  to  which  Madison  1792 
replied  that  this  was  the  first  time  he  had  ever  heard  it 
intimated  that  the  property  of  the  United  States  in  the 
bank  was  unalienable.  "  With  respect  to  the  money 
appropriated,  and  now  lying  useless,  he  was  of  opinion 
that  it  ought  to  be  immediately  applied  to  the  original 
purpose,  to  pay  our  debt  to  France.  Now  was  the  time 
to  discharge  our  obligations  to  that  country  ;  and  so  far 
from  considering  the  present  posture  of  affairs  in  France 
as  a  reason  for  withholding  payment,  he  would  rather 
wish  that  the  sum  was  wafted  to  them  on  the  wings 
of  the  wind."  The  news  just  received  of  the  repulse 
of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  in  his  march  upon  Paris 
seems  to  have  elevated  Madison  a  little  above  his  usual 
placid  level.  Venable,  Giles,  and  others  doubted  if  the 
United  States  could  save  any  thing  by  borrowing  at  five 
per  cent,  to  pay  a  debt  at  six  per  cent.,  "  taking  the 
charges  and  douceurs  into  account ;"  but  Fitzsimmons 
replied  that  the  five  per  cent,  included  every  thing. 
Steele's  motion  having  been  lost  by  a  large  majority, 
Madison  moved  to  reduce  the  payment  to  $200,000, 
the  sum  actually  due  by  the  terms  of  the  charter.  This 
motion  was  only  lost  by  the  casting  vote  of  the  speaker ;  Dee  26 
and,  as  the  strength  of  the  opposition  was  but  too  appar 
ent,  the  bill  was  no  longer  pressed.  It  passed  later  in 
the  session  in  the  form  proposed  by  Madison. 

In  the  midst  of  the  rejoicings  of  the  opposition  at  this 
triumph  over  Hamilton,  Steele  made  a  violent  onslaught  Dec.  2» 
upon  the  War  Department.  In  an  elaborate  speech  in 
support  of  a  motion  for  reducing  the  army,  he  dwelt  with 
great  emphasis  on  the  increase  of  military  outlays,  not 
without  dark  insinuations  that  the  Indian  war  was  pur- 


392  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  posely  protracted  for  the  very  purpose  of  multiplying  ex- 
'       penses.      He  thought  militia  far  preferable  to  regulars  for 

1792.  carrying  on  an  Indian  war;  and  he  proposed  to  appropri- 
ate the  great  savings  which  he  anticipated  from  the  change 
to  the  payment  of  the  public  debt.     Findley,  whose  posi- 
tion as  the  representative  of  a  frontier  district  outweighed 
on  this  occasion  his  party  predilections,  thought  the  great 
blame  rested  with  Congress  itself  for  its  tardy  and  insuf- 
ficient appropriations.      Madison  was  not  quite  prepared 
to  go  the  whole  length  proposed  by  Steele ;   he  thought 
the  object  in  view  might  be  accomplished  by  stopping  the 
enlistments  and  filling  up  the  ranks  with  volunteers.     He 

1793.  proposed  an  amendment  to  that  effect,  which,  however, 
Jan  8.    wag  jos^  ag  wag  a|go  faQ  original  motion  by  a  still  more 

decided  vote. 

Quite  a  portion  of  the  session  was  consumed  in  debat- 
ing a  bill  which  passed  the  House,  though  it  was  finally 
lost  in  the  Senate,  for  funding,  on  the  same  terms  with 
the  other  state  debts  hitherto  assumed,  the  balances  which 
might  be  found  due  to  any  of  the  states  on  the  final  set- 
tlement, now  in  rapid  progress,  of  the  state  and  Conti- 
nental accounts.  This  bill  was  violently  opposed  by  the 
enemies  of  the  former  assumption.  The  only  part  oi 
the  debate  of  any  permanent  interest  was  a  portion  of  it 
bearing  upon  the  charge,  in  which  we  have  seen  Jeffer- 
son persisting  so  positively  and  pertinaciously,  of  pecuni- 
ary corruption  and  private  interest  on  the  part  of  those 
members  of  Congress  by  whose  votes  the  funding  system 
had  been  carried. 

Jan  21.  John  F.  Mercer,  a  new  member  from  Maryland,  in 
moving  an  amendment  to  the  bill,  darkly  referred  to  the 
public  feeling  excited  by  alleged  dishonest  proceedings 
to  which  the  former  assumption  had  given  rise,  and 
from  which,  as  he  seemed  to  insinuate,  even  members 


ALLEGED  CORRUPTION  DENIED.       393 

of  the  House  had  not  been  altogether  free.     Fitzsimmons  CIIAPTEB 

could  not  undertake  to  say  what  the  public  feeling  actu- r 

ally  was  as  to  that  matter;  but  if  unfavorable  impres-  1793. 
sions  had  not  been  made,  it  certainly  was  not  for  want 
of  attempts  to  make  them,  and  that,  too,  on  the  part  of 
individuals  within  those  walls.  If  any  member  of  the 
House  knew  of  any  facts  of  the  kind  alluded  to,  let  him 
boldly  come  forward  and  charge  openly  the  guilty.  The 
same  challenge  was  repeated  by  Sedgwick.  "  The  ears 
of  the  House  had  been  more  than  once  assailed  by  insin- 
uations of  the  base  conduct  of  individual  members  in 
speculating  in  their  own  measures.  If  there  be  so  base 
and  infamous  a  character  within  these  walls — if  there  is 
one  member  of  this  House  who  has  been  guilty  of  plun- 
dering his  constituents  in  the  manner  represented,  let  his 
name  be  mentioned,  let  the  man  be  pointed  out !  From 
the  part  he  had  taken  in  this  business  from  the  begin- 
ning, and  from  suggestions  which  had  been  circulated,  he 
had  some  reason  to  suppose  that  it  might  be  intended  to 
implicate  him,  and  he  therefore  felt  called  upon  to  notice 
these  base  insinuations,  attempts  to  fix  a  stigma  on  men 
whose  reputation  was  dearer  to  them  than  life." 

Thus  met,  Mercer  hastened  to  draw  back,  and  to  dis- 
claim any  intention  to  implicate  any  body  in  particular 
His  remarks  had  been  directed  to  human  nature  at  large, 
Temptation  was  powerful,  and,  for  his  part,  he  did  not 
wish  his  honor  and  integrity  to  be  put  to  the  test.  He 
wound  up  with  quoting  from  Shakspeare,  "  Who  steals 
my  purse  steals  trash,"  &c.,  very  appropriate  indeed  in 
his  mouth ! 

White  believed  the  aspersions  on  members  of  Congress 
to  be  totally  unfounded.  He  did  not  doubt  that  specu- 
lation had  been  carried  to  a  very  great  extent  during  the 
pendency  of  the  funding  system.  That  could  not  be 


394  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  avoided.  Men  would  venture  according  to  their  opinion 
'  of  the  final  result.  When  the  proposal  to  discriminate 
1793.  between  original  holders  and  purchasers  was  brought  for- 
ward,  the  price  fell.  When  that  proposition  was  rejected, 
the  price  rose  again.  It  was  probably  the  same  with  the 
state  debts  in  the  various  stages  of  the  assumption.  But 
surely  no  suspicion  of  improper  conduct  could  fall  on 
those  who  had  voted  uniformly  either  for  or  against  the 
measure.  The  just  objects  of  suspicion  were  the  mem- 
bers who  at  first  had  opposed  the  assumption,  but  had 
voted  for  it  as  finally  modified.  Those  members  were 
five  in  number,  and  easily  known.  Three  still  retained 
their  seats  in  the  House ;  the  other  two  were  from  the 
same  state  with  the  mover  of  the  present  amendment. 
Of  the  three  still  in  the  House,  White  was  himself  one, 
and  no  man,  he  was  confident,  would  apply  the  charge 
of  speculation  to  him,  or,  indeed,  to  either  of  the  three,  in 
the  belief  that  there  was  a  shadow  of  truth  in  it.  Sev- 
eral other  members  took  the  same  occasion  to  challenge 
tho  application  of  any  charge  to  them.  But  not  the  least 
disposition  was  evinced  by  any  member  of  the  opposition 
to  bring  the  matter  to  any  practical  test. 

In  the  case,  however,  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury, more  sanguine  hopes  seem  to  have  been  entertained. 
The  man  whom  the  opposition  had  so  often  accused  of 
corruption,  they  took  it  for  granted  must  be  corrupt. 
With  the  view  to  obtain  a  basis  for  their  charges,  im- 
mediately after  the  vote  on  the  bill  for  paying  the  debt  to 
the  bank,  Giles  had  submitted  a  resolution  calling  upon 
the  president  for  particular  information  as  to  the  several 
sums  of  money  borrowed  by  his  authority ;  the  terms  of 
the  loans  ;  the  application  of  the  money ;  and  other  par- 
ticulars.  That  call  having  been  answered,  another  was 
Jam  23  now  made,  requesting  additional  and  more  particular  in 


CHARGES   AGAINST   HAMILTON.  395 

formation ;  extending  also  to  the  balances  of  the  public  CHAPTEB 
money  on  deposit  with  the  bank  and  its  branches ;  the  ' 
accounts  of  the  sinking  fund;  and  the  condition  of  the  1793. 
finances  generally.  In  proposing  this  call,  and  as  a 
reason  for  it,  Giles  delivered  an  elaborate  speech,  based 
upon  the  returns  already  made,  and  other  treasury  state- 
ments of  the  session,  in  which  he  broadly  charged  the 
secretary  with  failing  to  account  for  upward  of  a  million 
and  a  half  of  the  public  money;  intimating,  also,  foul 
play  and  mismanagement  in  the  negotiation  of  the  loans, 
and  in  drawing  a  part  of  the  money  unnecessarily  into 
the  United  States ;  and  that  half  a  million  of  dollars  had 
been  unnecessarily  borrowed  of  the  United  States  Bank 
at  the  very  time  that  a  larger  amount  was  lying  idle  on 
deposit  in  that  institution.  Thus,  at  last,  were  made  to 
assume  a  tangible  and  positive  form  the  various  charges 
against  Hamilton  of  corruption  and  peculation,  in  which 
the  opposition,  in  private  and  in  public,  had  so  freely  in- 
dulged. 

As  considerable  time  must  necessarily  elapse  before 
replies  could  be  prepared  to  all  the  minutiae  of  these  in- 
quiries, Hamilton  hastened  to  meet  the  most  material  Feb  4 
part  of  the  charges  thus  rashly  and  recklessly  hazarded 
against  his  official  integrity.  "  The  resolutions  to  which 
I  am  to  answer,"  so  his  report  ran,  "  were  not  moved 
without  a  pretty  copious  display  of  the  reasons  on  which 
they  were  founded.  Those  reasons  are  before  the  public 
through  the  channel  of  the  press.  They  are  of  a  nature 
to  excite  attention,  to  beget  alarm,  to  inspire  doubts. 
Deductions  of  a  very  extraordinary  complexion  may, 
without  forcing  the  sense,  be  drawn  from  them.  I  feel 
it  incumbent  to  meet  the  suggestions  thus  thrown  out 
with  decision  and  explicitness.  And  while  I  hope  I 
shall  let  fall  nothing  inconsistent  with  that  cordial  and 


396  HISTORY   OF    THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  unqualified  respect  which  I  feel  for  the  House  of  Repre- 

% . J sentatives — while  I  acquiesce  in  the  sufficiency  of  the 

1793.  motives  that  induced,  on  their  part,  the  giving  a  prompt 
and  free  course  to  the  investigation  proposed,  I  can  not 
but  resolve  to  treat  the  subject  with  a  freedom  which  is 
due  to  truth  and  to  the  consciousness  of  a  pure  zeal  for 
the  public  interest." 

The  report  then  proceeded  to  show  that  the  alleged 
defalcations  were  made  up  by  carelessly  or  maliciously 
reckoning  as  so  much  money  which  ought  to  be  in  the 
treasury,  a  considerable  amount  of  bonds  given  for  du- 
ties, but  not  yet  due ;  also  a  large  amount  of  the  pro- 
ceeds of  bills  on  the  bankers  abroad,  sold  but  not  yet 
paid  for  ;  and,  what  was  still  more  remarkable,  by  omit- 
ting to  take  into  account  as  money  in  the  treasury  an- 
other large  sum  actually  reported  as  being  on  deposit 
in  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  After  pointing  out 
these  errors,  and  giving  an  explanation  also  of  certain 
alleged  but  imaginary  discrepancies  between  some  of 
his  statements  and  certain  memoranda  in  the  treasurer's 
books,  the  report  concluded  with  this  significant  ques- 
tion :  "  Is  it  not  truly  matter  of  regret  that  so  formal 
an  explanation  on  such  a  point  should  have  been  made 
requisite  ?  Could  no  personal  inquiry  of  either  of  the  of- 
ficers concerned  have  superseded  the  necessity  of  publicly 
calling  the  attention  of  the  House  of  Representatives  to 
an  appearance,  in  truth,  so  little  significant  ?  Was  it 
seriously  supposed  that  there  could  be  any  difficulty  in 
explaining  that  appearance,  when  the  very  disclosure  of 
it  proceeded  from  the  voluntary  act  of  the  head  of  this 
department  ?" 

This  complete  and  unanswerable  vindication  against 
the  main  point  of  the  charges  might  have  abashed  an 
accuser  loss  brazen-faced  than  Giles,  chiefly  distin- 


CHARGES    AGAINST   HAMILTON.  397 

guished,  through  a  long  subsequent  political  career,  for  CHAPTER 

pertinacious  virulence  and  total  want  of  candor.    •  But 

Giles  did  not  stand  alone  in  this  business.  He  had  been  1793. 
judiciously  selected  as  spokesman ;  but  the  attack  upon 
Hamilton  was  evidently  a  concerted  matter  among  the 
leaders  of  the  opposition.  The  main  assault  had  dis- 
gracefully failed ;  but  it  was  still  hoped  to  pick,  at  least, 
some  flaws  in  the  secretary's  management  of  financial 
affairs ;  and  in  the  minute  history  of  the  transactions  of 
that  department,  drawn  out  by  repeated  inquiries,  to  find 
something  on  which  to  rest,  at  least,  the  charges  of  want 
of  caution,  or  want  of  judgment,  or  of  acts  done  without 
sufficient  authority. 

By  acts  of  the  4th  and  12th  of  August,  1790,  as  has 
been  mentioned  in  a  previous  chapter,  the  president  had 
been  authorized  to  negotiate  two  loans,  one  of  twelve 
millions  of  dollars,  for  the  discharge  of  the  foreign,  espe- 
cially of  the  French,  debt  due  and  to  become  due ;  the 
other,  of  two  millions,  for  the  purposes  of  the  sinking 
fund.  The  general  execution  of  the  powers  thus  given 
to  the  president  he  had  committed,  under  certain  restric- 
tions, by  a  written  authority,  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury.  Prior  to  the  passage  of  these  acts,  the  Ameri- 
can bankers  in  Holland,  perceiving  that  money  would  be 
needed  to  meet  the  foreign  demands  against  the  United 
States,  had  availed  themselves  of  a  favorable  opportunity 
to  open  on  their  own  responsibility  a  new  loan  for  three 
millions  of  florins,  trusting  to  the  government  to  ratify 
and  confirm  their  proceedings.  This  loan  it  had  been 
thought  best  to  adopt  as  a  part  of  those  authorized  by 
Congress,  and  Hamilton  had  written  to  the  bankers  to 
make  a  partition  of  it  between  the  two  loans,  that  for 
the  foreign  debt,  and  that  for  the  sinking  fund,  which  he 
proposed  at  first  to  keep  separate  and  distinct.  But  to 


398  HISTORST  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  this  partition  of  the  loan  already  made  the  bankers  ol> 
'  jected,  as  likely  to  raise  suspicions  among  the  subscrib- 
1793.  ers,  to  whom  it  might  not  be  so  easy  to  explain  the  pro- 
ceeding, and  Hamilton,  on  reflection,  saw  no  objection  to  a 
general  borrowing,  on  the  joint  authority  of  the  two  acts, 
to  the  extent  of  fourteen  millions  of  dollars,  without  any 
special  partition  of  the  money  thus  borrowed  between  the 
two  loans.  In  fact,  the  opening  at  the  same  time  of  two 
distinct  and  separate  loans  might  give  occasion  to  many 
inconveniences.  In  accordance  with  this  idea,  the  sum 
of  19,550,000  florins,  about  $7,820,000,  had  been  bor- 
rowed in  Holland  in  six  separate  installments,  at  rates 
of  interest,  charges  included,  beginning  at  a  fraction 
above  five  and  a  half  per  cent.,  and  ending  at  a  fraction 
below  four  and  a  half  per  cent.  Of  this  amount  upward 
of  four  millions  of  dollars  had  been  appropriated  to  pay 
the  installments  of  the  French  debt  already  due.  The 
Spanish  debt  had  also  been  provided  for  out  of  it ;  the 
debt  due  to  the  foreign  officers  who  had  served  in  the 
Continental  armies ;  and  the  interest  and  installments  of 
the  Dutch  loans.  Besides  these  payments  made  abroad, 
an  amount  equal  to  $2,304,769  had  been  drawn  into 
the  treasury  by  the  sale  of  bills  of  exchange  on  the  for- 
eign bankers,  in  whose  hands  there  still  remained,  after 
deducting  the  charges  on  the  loans,  a  small  balance. 
All  these  loans  or  installments  of  loans,  except  the  first, 
had  been  made  by  Short  as  sole  commissioner.  The 
payments  to  France  had  been  under  the  superintend- 
ence of  Morris  ;  but  in  both  cases  the  actual  hand- 
ling of  the  money  had  rested  exclusively  with  the  bank- 
ers of  the  United  States  at  Amsterdam  and  Paris.  Of 
the  moneys  drawn  into  the  United  States,  near  half  a 
million  had  been  expended  in  advances  for  St.  Domingo 
on  account  of  the  French  debt.  The  early  purchases 


CHARGES  A9AINST   HAMILTON.  399 

of  stocks  made  by  the  Commissioners  of  the  Sinking  CHAPTER 

Fund  had  also  been  paid  for  by  the  same  means.      But 

those  purchases  having  been  checked  by  the  rapid  rise  in  1793. 
the  value  of  stocks,  the  whole  amount  purchased  had 
fallen  short  of  the  income  realized  from  sources  other 
than  the  two  million  loan,  whigh  thus  remained,  in  fact, 
untouched,  leaving  in  the  treasury,  including  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  bills  sold  but  not  yet  paid  for,  near  two 
millions  of  dollars,  which  Hamilton  had  proposed  to  ap- 
propriate toward  paying  off  the  debt  to  the  bank.  The 
subscription  to  the  bank  and  the  loan  of  the  two  mill- 
ions in  return  had  both  been  made  without  the  actual 
use  of  any  money,  the  subscription  having  been  paid  by 
bills  on  the  foreign  bankers,  and  the  loan  having  been 
made  by  the  return  of  the  same  bills. 

The  having  drawn  two  millions  of  money  into  the 
United  States,  nominally  for  the  benefit  of  the  sinking 
fund,  but  which  proved  ultimately  not  needed  for  that 
purpose,  was  what  had  chiefly  excited  the  suspicions  of 
the  opposition ;  as  though  Hamilton  had  done  it  with  the 
very  intention  of  diverting  this  money  to  the  use  of  the 
bank,  by  paying  up  the  bank  debt  in  full.  And  this 
idea  they  adhered  to  very  obstinately,  at  least  the  more 
unreasonable  among  them,  notwithstanding  the  abund- 
ant evidence  furnished  by  Hamilton  in  a  supplementary  Feb.  13 
report  that  this  strengthening  the  treasury  by  these  drafts 
from  abroad  had  been  rendered  advisable  by  various  con- 
siderations, as  well  as  by  the  necessities  of  the  sinking 
fund  itself.  At  the  same  time,  he  did  not  deny,  as  one 
among  many  other  co-operating  reasons  why  the  drafts 
had  been  made,  the  possibility,  should  any  surplus  remain 
in  the  treasury  growing  out  of  these  drafts,  of  applying 
it  to  change  the  six  per  cent,  debt  due  the  bank  into  a 
four  and  a  half  per  cent,  debt  due  abroad. 


400  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

With  respect  to  the  temporary  loan  of  $400,000  from 
United  States  Bank  for  the  charges  of  the  Indian 

1793.  war,  it  appeared  from  the  statements  submitted  by  Ham- 
ilton  that,  but  for  that  loan,  which  had  been  made  in 
monthly  installments,  beginning  with  June,  there  would 
have  been  at  the  command  of  the  treasury,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  July,  at  those  places  from  which  immedi- 
ate supplies  could  be  derived,  that  is  to  say,  at  Philadel- 
phia, New  York,  and  Baltimore,  the  sum  of  only  about 
seventeen  thousand  dollars,  and  on  the  first  of  October  an 
actual  deficiency  at  those  places  of  $125,000,  the  total 
amount  on  hand  at  that  date  in  the  nine  depositories  then 
employed — the  United  States  Bank  and  its  branches  at 
Boston,  New  York,  Baltimore,  and  Charleston,  and  the 
state  banks  of  Massachusetts,  Providence,  New  York, 
and  North  America— amounting  only  to  $420,000,  even 
including  the  loan  of  $400,000  from  the  bank  and  the 
proceeds  of  the  bills,  the  drawing  of  which  had  excited 
such  suspicion. 

Upon  this  statement  of  facts,  which,  in  the  minds  of 
unprejudiced  persons,  seemed  to  leave  but  few  loop-holes 
for  objections,  even  on  the  part  of  those  most  critically 
disposed,  Giles  and  his  fellow-laborers  proceeded  to  frame 

Feb.  28.  nine  resolutions  of  censure,  for  which  he  asked  the  vote 
of  the  House.  The  first  two  resolutions  were  merely 
abstract  propositions,  to  the  effect  that  specific  appropri- 
ations ought  to  be  strictly  executed,  and  that  a  violation 
of  a  law  making  appropriations  was  an  infringement  of 
the  Constitution,  which  forbade  money  to  be  drawn  from 
the  treasury  except  in  consequence  of  appropriations 
made  by  law.  The  third  charged  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  with  dereliction  of  duty  in  failing  to  give  in- 
formation to  Congress  of  the  moneys  drawn  from  Europe, 
and  of  the  progress  of  such  drafts.  The  fourth  charged 


CHARGES    AGAINST   H  A  M 1 L  'J  0  N.  49] 

him  with  appropriating  a  part  of  the  loan  of  August  4th  CHAPTEB 
to  pay  the  interest  due  upon  it,  and  with  having  drawn  . 

part  of  that  loan  into  the  United  States  without  instruc-  1793 
tions  from  the  president.  The  fifth  charged  him  with 
deviating  from  his  instructions  and  violating  the  law 
by  mingling  together  the  two  loans  of  August  4th  and 
August  12th.  The  sixth  was  a  rehash  of  the  third  and 
part  of  the  fourth,  charging  him  with  having  improperly- 
drawn  into  the  United  States  a  sum  exceeding  two  mill- 
ions of  dollars,  and  with  having  failed  to  inform  the 
Commissioners  of  the  Sinking  Fund  of  the  progress  o^ 
those  drafts.  The  seventh  charged  him  with  borrowing 
$400,000  of  the  United  States  Bank  at  a  time  when  a 
larger  sum  was  deposited  in  various  banks  to  the  credit 
of  the  United  States.  The  eighth  charged  him  with  in- 
decorum toward  the  House  in  undertaking  to  judge  of  its 
motives  in  calling  for  information,  and  in  failing  to  give 
all  the  information  called  for.  The  ninth  proposed  to 
transmit  the  foregoing  resolutions  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States — as  an  intimation,  doubtless,  of  the  opin- 
ion of  the  House  that  so  faithless  an  officer  ought  forth- 
with to  be  dismissed  from  the  public  service. 

Giles  moved  to  refer  these  resolutions  to  a  Commit- 
tee of  the  Whole,  which  Murray  opposed  as  a  useless 
waste  of  time,  just  at  the  end  of  the  session,  when  so 
many  important  matters  remained  to  be  disposed  of. 
"  Though  the  subject  was  intricate,  the  various  reports 
of  the  secretary  contained  full  grounds  for  a  decision  to 
which  the  House  might  come  at  once.  The  mode  in 
which  these  resolutions  were  brought  forward  did  not 
entitle  them  to  much  ceremony.  A  more  unhandsome 
proceeding  he  had  never  known.  Common  right  and 
the  first  principles  of  justice  dictated  that  whoever  wag 
charged  with  a  violation  of  law  on  which  a  punishmen 
TV— C  o 


402  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  ensued,  should  have  some  mode  of  answering  the  charge 
.  Such  had  been  the  conduct  of  the  House  on  a  recent  oc- 

1793.  casion,  in  reference  to  the  failure  of  St.  Glair's  expedition. 
Suspicions  being  entertained  that  blame  lay  somewhere, 
a  committee  had  been  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  mat- 
ter. The  three  military  officers  particularly  concerned 
were  invited  to  come  before  the  committee,  to  explain, 
to  interrogate,  to  give  information.  Though  the  Secre- 
tary of  War,  who  seemed  to  be  implicated  by  the  report, 
was  not  permitted  to  be  heard  on  the  floor  of  the  House, 
justice  and  delicacy  demanded  that  he  should  be  heard 
somewhere,  and  the  committee  had  been  renewed  for  that 
very  purpose.  The  quarter-master  general  asked  to  be 
heard  on  this  floor  ;  that  was  refused,  but  he  was  allowed 
to  attend  the  committee  on  whose  proceedings  his  char- 
acter depended.  Regard  to  decency  and  to  the  estab- 
lished rights  of  citizenship  ought  to  teach  gentlemen  that 
when  any  man  officially  responsible  to  the  House  falls 
under  the  suspicions  of  any  of  its  members,  there  ought 
to  be  a  formal  inquiry  before  charges  were  laid  on  the 
table  to  which  the  assent  of  the  House  could  be  asked. 
In  the  present  case,  every  rule  of  justice,  and  all  that 
•  delicacy  which  ought  ever  to  attend  such  proceedings, 
had  been  disregarded.  A  number  of  charges  had  been 
brought  forward — not  for  inquiry,  but  for  conviction 
If  any  thing  could  throw  a  bias  against  the  resolutions, 
independent  of  investigation,  it  was  the  partial  and  un- 
just way  in  which  this  attempt  at  censure  had  been 
commenced,  as  tyrannical  as  it  was  novel.  Resolutions 
of  censure  might  rise  out  of  the  report  of  a  committee  of 
inquiry,  which  should  act  as  a  grand  jury,  but  never 
could  precede  it.  He  hoped  the  House  would  not  refer 
to  a  Committee  of  the  Whole  what  might  b/i  decided  ai 
once  by  a  direct  vote," 


CHARGES   AGAINST   HAMILTON.  4Q3 

Hamilton's   friends,  while  they   somewhat  ironically  CHAPTER 

expressed  their  satisfaction  that  a  charge  of  portentous , 

peculation  and  corruption  had  dwindled  down  into  a  mere  1793. 
complaint  of  assumption  of  power,  exercise  of  unwarrant- 
able discretion,  arrogance  and  want  of  poHteness  toward 
the  House,  were  disposed  to  give  his  accusers  full  sweep, 
objecting  only  to  the  reference  of  the  first  and  second  res- 
olutions, since  they  asserted  a  mere  abstract  proposition, 
and  of  the  last,  as  that  must  depend  on  the  adoption  of 
the  rest.  The  other  six  were  debated  in  Committee  of 
the  Whole  for  two  days.  Giles  was  supported  in  his  at- 
tempts to  sustain  the  resolutions  not  only  by  Mercer  and 
Findley,  from  whom  such  a  course  was  naturally  to  be 
expected,  but  even  by  Madison  also,  who  exerted  on  this 
occasion  his  utmost  ingenuity,  not,  however,  with  very 
distinguished  success ;  for,  in  his  anxiety  to  make  out  a 
case,  he  involved  himself  in  some  glaring  contradictions. 
Sedgwick,  Lawrence,  Lee,  Fitzsimmons,  Livermore, 
Smith  and  Barnwell  of  South  Carolina,  and  Boudinot, 
denied,  in  answer,  the  existence  of  any  legal  impedi- 
ment to  the  fusion  of  the  two  loans,  so  far  as  the  bor- 
rowing was  concerned.  As  to  taking  money  already  in 
Europe  to  pay  interest  due  in  Europe,  giving  a  corre-* 
spending  credit  in  the  United  States  to  the  fund  so  drawn 
upon,  that  was  an  ordinary  and  proper  financial  operation, 
since  it  was  hardly  desirable  to  transmit  money  to  Hol- 
land on  purpose  to  pay  interest,  when  money  was  already 
there  capable  of  being  so  applied ;  nor  was  it  any  great 
mark  of  financial  wisdom  to  imagine  that  the  identical 
moneys  received  under  a  loan  must  be  employed,  without 
the  possibility  of  a  substitution,  for  the  very  purpose  of 
that  loan,  and  none  other.  In  reference  to  the  drawing 
of  money  to  America,  it  was  maintained  that  the  presi- 
dent, and  the  secretary  as  his  agent,  were  fully  empow« 


404  HISTORY    OF   THE  UNITED   STATES 

CHAPTER  cred  to  draw  the  whole  fourteen  millions  thither,  had  thev 

y 

'  seen  occasion  to  do  so.  Two  out  of  the  fourteen  millions 
1793.  were  expressly  designed  to  be  used  in  the  United  States, 
and  nowhere  else.  The  shipments  made  to  St.  Domingo 
on  account  of  the  French  debt  more  than  exceeded  the 
excess  over  the  two  millions.  So  far  from  there  being 
no  need  of  money  for  the  purposes  of  the  Sinking  Fund, 
most  of  the  purchases  actually  made  by  that  fund — 
purchases  which  had  been  very  useful  in  raising  the  price 
of  the  stock,  and  thus  preventing  its  transfer  abroad  at 
a  rate  below  par — had  been  made  by  means  of  this  ver} 
money  drawn  from  Holland,  though  the  amount  had  since 
been  replaced,  and  more,  from  domestic  resources.  As 
to  any  allegations  that  the  secretary  had  exceeded  or  dis- 
regarded the  orders  of  the  president,  that  was  a  matter 
for  the  president's  judgment,  not  for  that  of  the  House. 
With  respect  to  the  failure  charged  upon  him  to  commu- 
nicate to  the  House  or  the  Commissioners  of  the  Sinking 
Fund  information  as  to  his  drafts  from  abroad,  as  neither 
the  House  nor  the  commissioners  were  in  any  way  re- 
sponsible for  the  custody  of  the  public  money,  it  was  quite 
time  enough  to  communicate  information  to  them  when 
•  they  had  asked  for  it. 

The  only  shadow  of  a  case  upon  any  of  the  nine  res- 
olutions was  the  doubtful  legality  of  the  fusion  of  the  two 
loans ;  and  that  was  a  mere  technical  question,  no  way 
involving  the  good  judgment,  much  less  the  integrity  of 
the  secretary,  which  had  been  made  the  subject  of  such 
envenomed  attacks.  Even  on  that  point  the  full  strength 
of  the  opposition  could  not  be  carried.  The  fifth  resolu- 
tion obtained  only  fifteen  votes  ;  the  third  and  fourth  re- 
ceived twelve  votes  ;  the  sixth  and  seventh,  eight  votes ; 
the  eighth,  seven  votes.  Madison  voted  with  Giles 
throughout  for  all  the  resolutions.  The  result  cf  the 


CLAIM    UF   THE    CONTINENTAL   OFFICERS.      4Q5 

business  was,  however,  much  to  raise  the  character  of  the  CHAPTER 

v. 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  by  convincing  the  great  body 

of  impartial  men,  capable  of  understanding  the  subject,  1793 
that,  both  as  regarded  talent  and  integrity,  he  was  ad- 
mirably qualified  for  his  office,  and  that  the  multiplied 
charges  against  him  had  been  engendered  by  envy,  sus- 
picion, and  ignorance. 

While  this  investigation  into  Hamilton's  conduct  em- 
ployed the  House,  his  plan  for  paying  off  the  public  debt 
was  suffered  quietly  to  drop,  after  a  few  hours'  consider- 
ation in  Committee  of  the  Whole.  The  change  was 
very  remarkable  which  the  great  zeal  of  the  opposition 
en  this  subject  underwent  from  the  moment  they  had  an 
opportunity  to  do  any  thing  in  the  matter.  To  talk 
about  paying  the  public  debt  seemed  to  be  much  more 
congenial  than  to  vote  taxes  for  that  purpose. 

The  movement  commenced  during  the  former  session 
by  the  officers  of  the  Massachusetts  Continental  line,  tc 
obtain,  out  of  the  savings  of  the  funding  system,  a  com- 
pensation for  their  losses  on  the  certificates  in  which 
their  dues  had  been  discharged,  was  seconded  during  the 
present  session  by  memorials  from  the  officers  of  most  of 
the  other  state  lines.  Gerry,  Giles,  Madison,  Mercer,  and 
Hartley  were  disposed  to  favor  this  claim.  It  was  opposed 
by  Sedgwick,  Boudinot,  and  others,  on  the  ground  that 
there  was,  in  fact,  no  such  saving  of  interest  as  the  officers 
imagined,  the  delay  assured  in  the  redemption  of  the  debt 
being  a  consideration  for  the  reduction  of  the  interest. 
The  equal  claim  of  the  soldiers  was  also  urged,  and  the 
new  avenue  to  speculation  of  the  worst  kind  which  would 
thus  be  opened  ;  and,  indeed,  the  claim  of  all  the  other 
Continental  creditors,  losers  by  the  depreciation  of  the 
public  stocks.  On  a  motion  by  Clark  to  refuse  the  prayer 
of  the  memorial,  there  were  only  ten  dissenting  votes. 


406  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STA1ES. 

CHAPTER       An  important  act  regulated  the  surrender  of  fugitives 
'       from  justice  and  the  restoration  of  fugitives  from  service, 
1793.  as  provided  for  in  the  Constitution. 

Fugitives  from  justice,  on  the  demand  of  the  executive 
of  the  state  whence  they  had  fled  upon  the  executive  of 
any  state  in  which  they  might  be  found,  accompanied 
with  an  indictment  or  affidavit  charging  crime  upon  them,, 
were  to  be  delivered  up  and  conveyed  back  for  trial.  This 
part  of  the  act  still  remains  in  force. 

In  case  of  the  escape  out  of  any  state  or  territory  of 
any  person  held  to  service  or  labor  under  the  laws  there- 
of, the  person  to  whom  such  labor  was  due,  his  agent, 
or  attorney,  might  seize  the  fugitive,  and  carry  him  be- 
fore any  United  States  judge,  or  before  any  magistrate 
of  the  city,  town,  or  county  in  which  the  arrest  was 
made  ;  and  such  judge  or  magistrate,  on  proof  to  his 
satisfaction,  either  oral  or  by  affidavit  before  any  other 
magistrate,  that  the  person  seized  was  really  a  fugitive, 
and  did  owe  labor  as  alleged,  was  to  grant  a  certificate 
to  that  effect  to  the  claimant,  this  certificate  to  serve 
as  sufficient  warrant  for  the  removal  of  the  fugitive  to 
the  state  whence  he  had  fled.  Any  person  obstructing 
in  ai;y  way  such  seizure  or  removal,  or  harboring  or  con- 
cealing any  fugitive  after  notice,  was  liable  to  a  penalty 
of  $500,  to  be  recovered  by  the  claimant. 

This  act,  which  originated  with  the  Senate,  seems  to 
have  passed  the  House  withomt  any  debate.  At  the  time 
of  its  passage,  and  for  many  years  after,  the  above  pro- 
visions attracted  little  attention  At  a  later  period,  they 
were  denounced  not  only  as  exceedingly  harsh  and  per- 
emptory, opening  a  door  to  great  abuses,  but  as  uncon- 
stitutional, in  subjecting  that  most  important  of  all  ju- 
ridical questions,  the  right  of  personal  liberty,  to  a  sum- 
mary jurisdiction,  without  trial  by  jury,  or  any  appeal  on 


LIABILITY    OF    THE    STATES.  4Q7 

'joints  of  law.     Availing  themselves  of  a  decision  of  the  CHA^TEI 

Supreme  Federal  Court  as  to  the  want  of  power  in  Con- 

gress  to  impose  duties  on  state  officers,  most  of  the  free  1793 
states  passed  acts  forbidding  their  magistrates,  under  se- 
vere penalties,  to  take  any  part  in  carrying  this  law  into 
execution ;  and  it  was  thus  substantially  reduced  to  a 
dead  letter.  It  remains  to  be  seen  what  success  will  at- 
tend a  recent  attempt  (1850)  to  revive  and  re-enforce  it, 
by  provisions  still  more  open  to  objection  than  those  con- 
tained in  the  original  act. 

The  appropriations  for  the  service  of  1793,  exclusive 
of  the  interest  on  the  public  debt,  but  including  the  first 
installment  of  $200,000  to  the  Bank  of  the  United  States, 
amounted  to  near  $1,900,000,  requiring,  with  the  inter- 
est on  the  debt,  an  income  of  about  $4,850,000.  In 
anticipation  of  the  receipts  of  the  year,  a  temporary  loan 
was  authorized  from  the  bank,  not  exceeding  $800,000. 

Shortly  before  the  termination  of  the  session,  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States  decided  the  first  great 
constitutional  question  brought  before  it.  One  Chis- 
holm,  being  a  citizen  of  another  state,  had  brought  an 
action  against  the  State  of  Georgia  to  recover  a  sum  of 
money  alleged  to  be  due  to  him  from  that  state.  Though 
the  Governor  of  Georgia  had  been  duly  served  with  a  copy 
of  the  writ,  no  appearance  had  been  entered  to  the  action, 
whereupon  the  counsel  for  the  plaintiff  moved  for  a  judg- 
ment by  deiault.  This  raised  the  question  whether  the 
states  were  liable  to  be  sued  by  individual  citizens  of 
other  states.  The  affirmative  was  maintained  by  Ran- 
dolph, the  attorney  general,  who  appeared  for  the  plaintiff. 
Instead  of  making  an  argument  in  reply,  the  counsel  re- 
tained for  the  State  of  Georgia  put  in  a  written  protest 
denying  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court.  The  case  seemed 
to  be  plain  enough,  since,  by  the  terms  of  the  Constitu- 


408  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  tion,  the  jurisdiction  was  given  in  so  many  express  words 
'  The  idea,  however,  of  being  sued  by  individuals  had  ex- 
1793.  cited  a  great  fluttering  in  many  of  the  states,  none  of 
which  had  been  remarkably  prompt  in  paying  their  debts. 
The  objection  had  been  started  that,  as  the  states  were 
sovereign,  they  could  not  be  sued.  Judge  Iredell,  who 
seemed  to  lean  against  the  jurisdiction,  wished  to  escape 
a  decision  on  an  objection  to  the  form  of  the  action.  The 
other  judges  held  that  the  form  of  the  action  was  well 
enough  ;  and  that,  as  the  United  States  constituted  one 
nation,  the  alleged  sovereignty  of  the  separate  states  must 
be  considered  to  be  so  far  modified  thereby  as  to  subject 
them,  under  the  terms  of  the  Constitution,  to  suits  in  the 
national  courts.  Before  the  above  decision  was  given, 
Johnston  had  resigned  his  seat  on  the  bench.  Patter- 
son, of  New  Jersey,  was  soon  after  nominated  as  his 
successor. 

The  day  after  this  decision  was  pronounced,  Sedgwick 
offered  a  resolution  in  the  House  of  Representatives  for 
an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  protecting  the  states 
against  suits  by  individuals.  No  action  was  had  upon 
this  motion  at  this  time,  but  subsequently  such  an 
amendment  prevailed — another  exemplification  of  the 
old  maxim,  that  the  net  of  the  law  is  only  strong  enough 
for  the  small  flies. 

An  act  to  regulate  trade  and  intercourse  with  the 
Indians  laid  the  foundations  of  that  system  which  the 
United  States  have  ever  since  pursued.  An  account  of 
it,  as  subsequently  extended  and  modified,  will  be  given 
hereafter.  General  Lincoln,  Pickering,  the  postmaster 
general,  and  Beverly  Randolph,  late  governor  of  Virginia, 
were  appointed  commissioners  for  holding  the  proposed 
treaty  with  the  Northwestern  Indians.  Little  was  hoped 
from  that  negotiation  ;  yet  it  was  deemed  very  essential 


WASHINGTON'S    SECOND    INSTALLATION.       409 

to  refute  the  charge  that  the  war  had  been  unnecessarily  CHAPTEB 
protracted.  -. 

In  the  importance  of  its  acts  the  second  Congress  can  1793. 
lot  be  compared  to  the  first.  It  completed,  however, 
that  general  system  of  administration  which  gave  to  the 
new  federal  government  its  practical  character,  and  which 
has  continued  substantially  unaltered  from  that  time  to 
this.  Lasting  monuments  of  these  labors  remain  in  the 
federal  judiciary,  the  executive  departments,  the  revenue 
system,  including  the  regulation  of  ships  and  commerce 
and  the  protection  of  domestic  manufactures,  the  army, 
the  post-office,  and  the  general  system  of  Indian  policy. 

The  forms  proper  to  be  observed  at  Washington's  en- 
trance upon  his  second  term  of  office  became  a  subject 
of  consideration  in  the  cabinet.  Jefferson  was  for  the 
greatest  possible  simplicity.  He  proposed  that  the  pres- 
ident should  take  the  oath  of  office  privately  at  his  own 
house ;  a  certificate  of  it  to  be  deposited  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  State.  By  no  means  willing  that  Jefferson  should 
purchase  at  this  very  cheap  rate  the  reputation  of  being 
the  only  Republican  in  the  cabinet,  Hamilton  readily  fell 
in  with  the  same  idea.  Knox  and  Randolph  dissented ; 
and,  in  conformity  with  their  opinion,  Washington  took 
the  oath  of  office  publicly  in  the  Senate  Chamber,  in  March  4 
presence  of  the  heads  of  departments,  the  foreign  minis- 
ters, and  other  public  functionaries,  prefacing  the  cere- 
mony by  a  short  speech. 

Convinced  of  the  folly  of  giving  occasion  to  his  ene- 
mies by  a  sumptuous  style  of  living — especially  as  he 
had  to  do  it  at  his  own  expense — Adams  had  given  up 
his  house  at  Philadelphia  and  gone  into  lodgings,  leaving 
Mrs.  Adams  at  home  to  manage  the  farm.  "  My  style 
of  living,"  he  wrote  to  his  wife,  "  is  quite  popular.  I 
am  so  well  satisfied  with  rny  present  simplicity  that  I 


410      HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

CHAPTER  am  determined  never  to  depart  from  it  again  so  far  as  1 
have  done.      My  expenses  for  the  future    shall,   at  all 
1793.  events,  be  within  my  income,  nay,  within  my  salary. 
I  will  no  longer  be  the  miserable  dupe  of  vanity.    I  will 
never  travel  but  by  stage,  nor  live  at  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment but  in  lodgings,  while  they  give  me  so  despicable 
an  allowance."     But,  while  one  topic  of  political  decla- 
mation was  thus  lost,  another  was  found.      The  cele- 
bration of  Washington's  birth-day  by  visits  of  congratu- 
lation, and  by  balls,  parties,  and  other  festivities,  not  in 
Philadelphia  only,  but  in  many  other  principal  cities  and 
towns,  appeared  to  the  Republicans  an  alarming  step  to- 
ward monarchy,  and  became  the  subject  of  bitter  com- 
plaints in  Freneau's  paper  and  others  of  the  same  leaning. 
Clark,  of  New  Jersey,  a  zealous  member  of  the  new  Re- 
publican party,  carried  his  political  puritanism  so  far  as 
to  move  in  the  House  that  the  mace,  being  "  an  un- 
meaning symbol,  unworthy  the  dignity  of  a  republican 
government,"  be  sent  to  the  mint,  broken  up,  and  tho 
silver  coined  and  placed  in  the  treasury — a  motion  foi 
which  more  than  half  the  opposition  voted.     These  things 
may  seem  to  be  trifles,  but  are  not  without  importance 
as  going  to  show  the  jealous  and  irritable  state  of  the 
public  mind. 


FRENCH    REVOLUTION. 


CHAPTER    VI 

RELATIONS  WITH  FRANCE.  GENET.  JEFFERSON  RETIRES 
FROM  THE  CABINET.  THIRD  CONGRESS.  MADISON'S 
RESOLUTIONS.  PROSPECT  OF  A  WAR  WITH  GREAT  BRIT- 
AIN. MISSION  OF  JAY. 

UlTHERTO,  since  the  conclusion  of  the  Revolution-  CHAPTER 

ary  war,  the  development  of  American  politics  had  gone _ 

on  almost  wholly  from  within.    But  an  important  change  1798 
was  now  to  take  place,  carrying  back  the  country  for 
many   years   to   a  sort  of  semi-colonial  dependence   on 
Europe. 

The  progress  of  the  French  Revolution,  from  its  first 
decisive  start  by  the  meeting  of  the  States-General  al- 
most cotemporaneously  with  the  organization  of  the  new 
federal  government,  had  been  watched  in  America  with 
the  greatest  interest.  The  general  enthusiasm  which  had 
welcomed  the  supposed  advent  of  French  liberty  had  in- 
deed encountered,  almost  from  the  beginning,  some  sturdy 
doubters ;  and  with  the  progress  of  the  revolution  their 
numbers  had  gradually  increased,  especially  after  the  flight 
of  Lafayette.  Still  the  proclamation  of  the  French  re- 
public, notwithstanding  its  bloody  preface  of  Danton's 
September  massacre,  had  aroused  in  America  a  great 
burst  of  popular  feeling,  of  which  a  striking  specimen 
had  been  displayed  in  a  celebration  got  up  at  Boston  in  Jan.  24 
honor  of  the  repulse  of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  and  of 
Dumourier's  temporary  conquest  of  the  Austrian  Nether- 
lands. An  ox  roasted  whole,  covered  with  decorations, 
and  elevated  on  a  car  drawn  by  sixteen  horses,  the  flags 
of  France  and  the  United  States  displayed  from  the  horns, 


412  HISTORST  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  had  been  paraded  through  the  streets,  followed  by  four 

carts  drawn  by  twenty-four  horses,  and  containing  six- 

1793.  teen  hundred  loaves  of  bread  and  two  hogsheads  of  punch. 
While  these  viands  were  distributed  among  an  immense 
crowd  collected  in  State  Street  (formerly  King  Street), 
a  select  party  of  three  hundred  persons  sat  down  in 
Faneuil  Hall  to  a  civic  feast,  over  which  presided  the 
venerable  Samuel  Adams,  then  lieutenant  governor  of 
the  state,  assisted  by  the  French  consul.  The  children 
from  all  the  schools,  marshalled  in  State  Street,  were  each 
presented  with  a  cake  stamped  with  the  words  u  Liberty 
and  Equality."  A  subscription  was  raised,  and  the  pris- 
oners confined  in  jail  for  debt  were  liberated.  Two  bal- 
loons, then  a  new  invention,  were  let  off,  and  in  the  even- 
ing bonfires  were  kindled,  and  the  State  House  and  other 
buildings  were  splendidly  illuminated.  Similar  celebra- 
Feb.  6.  tions  took  place  in  several  other  places.  In  Philadelphia, 
the  anniversary  of  the  French  alliance  was  commemo- 
rated by  a  public  dinner,  at  which  Governor  Mifflin  pre- 
sided. At  the  head  of  the  table  a  pike  was  fixed,  bear- 
ing the  cap  of  Liberty,  with  the  French  and  American 
flags  intertwined,  the  whole  surmounted  by  a  dove  and 
olive  branch. 

The  execution  of  the  unfortunate  Louis  excited  a  de- 
gree of  sympathy  on  behalf  of  that  amiable  sovereign ;  but 
neither  that  nor  any  other  of  the  violences  of  the  Con- 
vention served  hardly  to  check  the  glow  of  enthusiastic 
zeal  for  the  French  republic — a  sentiment  soon  kindled 
April  9.  into  new  fervor  by  the  -arrival  at  Charleston  of  Citizen 
Genet,  appointed  to  supersede  Ternant  as  embassador 
from  France.  News  of  the  French  declaration  of  war 
against  England,  which  Genet  brought  with  him  to 
Charleston,  had  reached  New  York  five  days  earlier  by 
the  British  packet.  It  could  not  but  excite  the  deep- 


WAR    BETWEEN    FRANCE   AND    ENGLAND.        413 

est  anxiety  in  the  minds  of  Washington  and  his  cabinet.  CHAPTER 

By  the  treaty  of  commerce,  French  privateers  and  prizes 

were  entitled  to  shelter  in  the  American  ports^-a  shelter  1793. 
not  to  be  extended  to  the  enemies  of  France.  By  the 
treaty  of  alliance,  the  United  States  were  bound,  in  ex- 
press terms,  to  guarantee  the  French  possessions  in  Amer- 
ica. As  soon  as  the  news  reached  Washington,  then  at 
Mount  Vernon,  he  hastened  to  Philadelphia,  and,  imme-  April  is 
diately  after  his  arrival,  sent  to  the  cabinet  officers  a  se- 
ries of  questions,  suggested,  probably,  by  Hamilton,  on 
which  their  opinions  were  to  be  given  at  a  council  the 
next  day.  Should  a  proclamation  issue  to  prevent  in- 
terferences, by  citizens  of  the  United  States,  in  the  war  ? 
Should  it  contain  a  declaration  of  neutrality,  or  what  ? 
Should  a  minister  from  the  French  republic  be  received  ? 
If  so,  should  the  reception  be  absolute  or  qualified  ? 
Were  the  United  States  bound  to  consider  the  treaties 
with  France  as  applying  to  the  present  state  of  the  par- 
ties ;  or  might  they  be  renounced  or  suspended  ?  Sup- 
pose the  treaties  binding,  what  was  the  effect  of  the  guar- 
antee ?  Did  it  apply  in  case  of  an  offensive  war  ?  Was 
the  present  war  offensive  or  defensive  on  the  part  of 
France  ?  Did  the  treaty  with  France  require  the  ex- 
clusion of  English  ships  of  war,  other  than  privateers, 
from  the  ports  of  the  United  States  ?  Was  it  advisable 
to  call  an  extra  session  of  Congress  ? 

Upon  an  elaborate  discussion  of  these  questions,  it  wa? 
unanimously  agreed  that  a  proclamation  of  neutrality 
should  issue  ;  that  the  new  French  minister  should  be 
received ;  and  that  a  special  session  of  Congress  was 
not  expedient.  Upon  other  points  there  were  differences 
of  opinion.  Hamilton,  with  whom  Knox  concurred, 
thought  that  the  reception  of  Genet  should  be  with  an 
express  reserve  of  the  question  as  to  the  binding  force  of 


414  HISTORY    OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  treaties.  They  admitted  the  right  of  France  to 
'  change  her  government,  but  they  questioned  her  right, 
1793.  after  such  a  change,  to  hold  the  United  States  to  treaties 
made  with  a  view  to  a  totally  different  state  of  things, 
and  which,  if  now  carried  out,  might  impose  obligations 
on  the  United  States,  and  expose  them  to  dangers  never 
dreamed  of  when  the  treaties  were  made.  As  to  the  ef- 
fect of  the  guarantee,  supposing  the  treaties  binding, 
they  held  that  it  did  not  apply  to  an  offensive  war  on 
the  part  of  France,  which  the  present  war  must  be  taken 
to  be,  as  she  had  made  the  first  declaration  of  it ;  pend- 
ing, therefore,  the  present  war,  the  guarantee  must  be 
considered  as  suspended. 

Jefferson,  whom  Randolph  inclined  to  support,  thought 
the  treaties  as  binding  in  case  of  the  republic  as  in  case 
of  the  king,  As  to  the  effect  or  operation  of  the  guar- 
antee they  declined  to  give  any  opinion,  it  not  being  at 
present  necessary.  Yet,  by  agreeing  to  the  proclama- 
tion of  neutrality,  they  concurred  in  putting  a  limit  to 
the  binding  force  of  that  guarantee,  rather  difficult  to 
reconcile  with  its  existence  at  all.  Hamilton's  views 
had  at  least  the  advantage  of  consistency ;  and  the  course 
which  he  advised,  of  explicitly  declaring  the  obligation 
of  the  guarantee  suspended,  would  have  found  ample 
justification  in  the  course  adopted  by  the  French  Con- 
vention itself.  Before  news  reached  France  of  Wash- 
May  17.  ington's  proclamation  of  neutrality,  orders  had  been  is- 
sued there,  in  direct  repugnance  to  the  treaty  of  com- 
merce with  the  United  States,  for  the  capture  and  for- 
feiture of  enemy's  goods  on  board  neutral  vessels ;  whereas 
the  treaty  provided  that  free  ships  should  make  free  goods. 
On  the  representation  of  Morris,  this  order  was  suspended 
for  a  few  days  as  to  American  vessels,  but  this  suspen- 
sion was  soon  recalled,  and  the  treaty  in  that  respect,  ap. 


PROCLAMATION    OF   NEUTRALITY  415 

afterward  in  others,  quite  disregarded.      The  excuse  was  CHAPTER 

the  peculiar  position  in  which  France  was  placed,  in 

substance  the  same  argument  on  which  Hamilton  relied.  1793, 
The  course  actually  adopted  had  this  disadvantage  in  it : 
by  seeming  to  recognize  the  treaties  as  in  full  binding 
force,  guarantee  and  all,  it  gave  France  an  opportunity, 
of  which  afterward  she  amply  availed  herself,  to  set  up 
claims  upon  the  United  States  quite  inconsistent  with 
their  independent  neutrality. 

The  proclamation,  as  issued,  announced  the  disposition  April  xx 
of  the  United  States  to  pursue  a  friendly  and  impartial 
conduct  toward  all  the  belligerent  powers,  a  course  alike 
required  by  their  duty  and  their  interest.  It  exhorted 
and  warned  the  citizens  to  avoid  all  acts  not  in  accord- 
ance with  such  a  disposition ;  and  declared  the  resolu- 
tion of  the  government  not  only  not  to  interfere  on  be- 
half of  those  who  might  expose  themselves  to  punishment 
or  forfeiture  under  the  law  of  nations  by  aiding  or  abet- 
ting either  of  the  belligerents,  but  to  cause  all  such  acts 
done  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States  to  be 
prosecuted  in  the  proper  courts. 

Whether  the  state  of  the  public  feeling  would  have 
admitted,  on  the  part  of  the  American  government,  any 
position  less  ambiguous  than  the  one  actually  taken — 
such,  for  instance,  as  a  suspension  of  the  guarantee — 
may  well  admit  of  a  doubt.  Not  only  did  enthusiasm 
run  very  high  on  behalf  of  the  French  republic,  but  that 
feeling  was  seconded  and  inflamed  by  all  the  hatred  of 
Great  Britain  treasured  up  during  the  Revolutionary 
war.  Genet,  the  new  French  embassador,  knew  very 
well  how  to  take  advantage  of  both  these  sentiments 
Placed,  according  to  his  own  account,  at  the  age  of  twelve 
years,  in  the  bureau  of  foreign  affairs,  he  had  translated, 
under  his  father's  direction,  into  the  French  language, 


410  HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  new  American  Constitutions  and  many  political  es 

__J says,  "thus  contributing  to  penetrate  the  French  with 

1793.  the  spirit  of  '76."  After  being  seven  years  head  of  the 
bureau  at  Versailles,  under  the  direction  of  Vergennes, 
he  had  passed  one  year  at  London  in  a  diplomatic  capac- 
ity, two  at  Vienna,  one  at  Berlin,  and  five  in  Russia, 
whence  he  had  recently  been  expelled  by  the  Empress 
Catharine.  Having  been  lately  employed  in  revolution- 
izing Geneva  and  annexing  it  to  the  French  republic,  he 
had  been  selected  by  the  Girondins,  then  in  power,  as  a  fit 
person  to  be  sent  to  America,  the  object  of  his  mission  be- 
ing, in  fact,  as  appeared  from  his  instructions  afterward 
published,  to  draw  the  United  States,  as  far  as  possible, 
into  making  common  cause  with  France.  By  no  means 
deficient  in  abilities,  nor  without  experience  as  a  diplo- 
matist, he  was  completely  filled  with  that  terrible  fanati- 
cism, setting  all  ordinary  rules  of  prudence,  and,  indeed, 
of  morals  at  defiance,  hitherto,  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
connected  mostly  with  religious  ideas,  but  passing  at 
this  era  into  politics,  and  seeming  to  concentrate  in  the 
hearts  of  the  popular  leaders,  and  in  an  active  mass  of 
the  people  themselves,  all  the  hatred,  rage,  and  revenge 
which  centuries  of  oppression  had  served  to  accumulate ; 
an  enthusiasm  aggravated  to  the  highest  pitch  by  the 
union  of  the  kings  and  aristocracies  of  Europe  against 
the  French  republic ;  and  potent  enough  to  drive  even 
wise  men  into  madness. 

Genet's  reception  at  Charleston,  on  the  part  of  Gov- 
ernor Moultrie  and  the  citizens,  had  been  enthusiastic. 
Being  provided  with  blank  commissions,  both  naval  and 
military,  he  had  caused  to  be  fitted  out  two  privateers, 
manned  mostly  with  Americans,  which  put  to  sea  under 
the  French  flag,  and,  cruising  along  the  coast,  soon  made 
numerous  captures  of  homeward-bound  British  vessels, 


CABINET    CONSULTATION.  4^7 

He  also  assumed,  under  a  decree  of  the  Convention,  the  CHAPTER 

VI. 

extraordinary  authority  of  authorizing  the  French  con- 

suls  throughout  the  United  States  to  erect  themselves  1793. 
into  courts  of  admiralty  for  trying  and  condemning  such 
prizes  as  the  French  cruisers  might  bring  into  American 
ports.  The  frigate  L'Ambuscade,  in  which  he  had  ar- 
rived at  Charleston,  soon  sailed  for  Philadelphia,  making 
prizes  of  several  British  vessels  by  the  way.  One  was 
captured  within  the  Capes  of  the  Delaware,  the  restitu- 
tion of  which  was  speedily  demanded  by  the  British 
minister,  who  presented,  also,  numerous  other  complaints 
against  the  doings  of  the  privateers  fitted  out  at  Charles- 
ton. At  a  cabinet  council  held  to  consider  these  memo* 
rials,  it  was  agreed  that  the  privateering  commissions 
issued  by  Genet,  as  well  as  the  condemnation  of  prizes 
by  the  French  consuls,  were  unauthorized  by  treaty, 
irregular,  and  void.  It  was  also  agreed  that  the  Grange, 
the  vessel  captured  by  the  French  frigate  L'Ambuscade 
within  the  Capes  of  the  Delaware,  must  be  restored  to 
the  British  owners.  As  to  the  vessels  captured  by  the 
privateers  fitted  out  by  Genet  and  sent  into  the  United 
States,  it  was  the  opinion  of  Hamilton  and  Knox  that, 
as  these  captures  were  manifestly  illegal,  adherence  to 
the  proclamation  of  neutrality  required  that  the  captured 
vessels  should  be  restored  to  their  owners,  as  otherwise 
the  United  States  would  allow  themselves  to  be  made 
the  instrument  of  injury  to  Great  Britain.  Jefferson 
and  Randolph  maintained,  on  the  other  hand,  that  if  the 
captures  were  illegal,  as  to  which  they  did  not  choose  to 
commit  themselves,  the  owners  ought  to  be  left  to  the 
courts  of  law  to  recover  their  property  ;  that  a  disa- 
vowal of  assent  to  the  proceedings  in  which  these  cap- 
tures originated,  and  the  steps  taken  for  future  prevention, 
ought  to  be  satisfactory  to  the  English ;  and  that  to  at- 
IV.— D  r. 


418  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  tempt  to  restore  the   captured  vessels   by  force   would 
'       amount  to  reprisals  against  the  French  republic — a  very 

1793.  serious  matter  indeed,  and  which  the  executive  had  no 
right  to  enter  upon  without  special  authority  from  Con- 
gress. Hamilton  insisted,  in  reply,  that  here  was  not  a 
question  of  mere  ownership,  proper  for  the  courts,  but  a 
question  of  neutrality,  demanding,  as  it  was  admitted 
the  case  of  the  Grange  did,  the  direct  interference  of  the 
government,  which  Great  Britain,  under  the  circum 
stances,  would  have  a  right  to  expect,  and  of  which 
France  would  have  no  right  to  complain.  On  this  dis- 
puted point — as  to  which  Washington  subsequently  con- 
formed to  the  opinion  of  Hamilton — decision  was  sus- 
pended. Meanwhile,  the  resolutions  on  the  points  agreed 

May  15.  to  were  communicated  to  Ternant.  This  communication 
Ternant  handed  over  to  Genet,  who  arrived  just  at  this 
time  at  the  seat  of  government. 

For  reasons  of  policy  as  well  as  security,  the  French 
minister  had  proceeded  from  Charleston  to  Philadelphia 
by  land.  His  journey  had  been  almost  a  triumphal  pro- 
cession. Those  same  Republicans  who  had  severely 
reprobated  any  excessive  marks  of  respect  toward  Wash- 
ington, thought  it  almost  impossible  to  do  too  much  to 
honor  the  French  republic  in  the  person  of  her  minister. 

May  16.  On  his  approach  to  Philadelphia,  he  was  met  at  Gray's 
Ferry  by  an  immense  crowd,  who  escorted  him  into  the 
city.  The  next  day  he  received  addresses  from  numer- 
ous societies,  and  from  the  citizens  at  large,  who  waited 

May  18.  upon  him  in  a  body  for  that  purpose.  The  day  follow- 
ing he  was  presented  to  the  president  and  officially  ac- 
credited. But  on  this  occasion  he  was  by  no  means  so 
well  satisfied.  Not  only  did  the  president's  address  seem 
very  tame  after  all  the  fervid  speeches  he  had  heard  be- 
tween Charleston  and  Philadelphia,  but  he  actually  found 


RECEPTION    OF    GENET.  419 

the  president's  parlor  ornamented  "  with  certain  medal-  CHAPTER 

lions  of  Capet  and  his  family."    Moreover,  the  Marquis  de 

Noailles  and  other  emigrant  Frenchmen  had  been  lately  1793 
admitted  to  the  honor  of  a  presentation.  Genet,  how- 
ever, was  consoled  in  the  evening  by  a  republican  feast5 
on  which  occasion  was  sung  an  ode  in  French,  com- 
posed by  Citizen  Duponceau,  who  had  come  originally  to 
America  as  an  aid  to  Baron  Steuben,  and  was  now  set- 
tled at  Philadelphia,  where  he  rose  afterward  to  distinc- 
tion as  a  lawyer  and  man  of  letters.  Citizen  Freneau, 
being  one  of  the  company,  was  requested  to  translate 
this  ode  into  English  verse.  The  Marseilles  Hymn  was 
sung,  with  two  additional  stanzas  composed  by  Genet 
himself,  with  special  reference  to  the  navy,  previous  to 
which  a  deputation  of  sailors  from  the  frigate  L' Ambus- 
cade entered  the  hall,  embraced,  and  took  their  seats. 
After  the  last  regular  toast,  the  red  cap  of  Liberty  was 
placed  on  the  head  of  Citizen  Genet,  and  then  traveled 
from  head  to  head,  each  wearer,  under  its  inspiration, 
delivering  a  patriotic  sentiment.  The  table  was  decora- 
ted with  the  tree  of  Liberty  and  the  French  and  Ameri- 
can flags  ;  and  the  officers  and  sailors  of  the  L' Ambus- 
cade, to  whom  they  were  finally  delivered,  swore  to  de- 
fend till  death  these  tokens  of  liberty  and  of  American 
and  French  fraternity.  From  the  moment,  indeed,  of 
Genet's  arrival  in  the  United  States,  the  existence  be- 
came evident,  not  only  of  a  wide-spread  and  enthusiastic 
sympathy  for  France,  but  of  a  faction  more  French  than 
American,  ready  and  anxious  to  go  all  lengths  toward 
identifying  the  French  and  American  republics. 

In  his  address  to  the  president,  Genet  had  disavowed 
any  wish  to  involve  the  United  States  in  the  pending 
war.  Yet  it  was  sufficiently  evident,  from  his  proceedings 
at  Charleston,  that  he  expected  favors  toward  France 


420  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  and  aid  to  her  belligerent  operations  wholly  inconsistent 
'  with  a  neutral  position  on  the  part  of  the  United  States. 
1792.  Two  or  three  days  after  his  formal  introduction  to  the 
May  22.  president,  he  opened  his  diplomatic  correspondence  by  a 
request  for  immediate  payment,  by  anticipation,  of  the 
remaining  installments  of  the  French  debt,  amounting 
to  $2,300,000.  As  an  inducement,  he  offered  to  invest 
the  amount  in  provisions  and  other  American  products, 
to  be  shipped  partly  to  St.  Domingo  and  partly  to  France. 
May  23.  This  request  was  followed  up  by  a  very  grandiloquent 
paper,  communicating  a  decree  of  the  French  Convention, 
by  which  all  the  ports  of  France  and  her  colonies  were 
freely  opened  to  American  vessels  on  the  same  terms  as 
to  those  of  France.  Such  a  relaxation  of  commercial 
restrictions  had  been  usual  with  France  on  the  breaking 
out  of  war,  as  a  convenience  toward  obtaining  needed 
supplies ;  but  Genet  represented  it  to  be  now  granted 
as  a  boon  of  pure  good  will  toward  America.  He  com- 
municated at  the  same  time  his  authority  to  propose  a 
new  treaty  of  commerce,  "  a  true  family  compact,"  on 
"  the  liberal  and  fraternal  basis"  of  which  France  wished 
to  raise  up  "  the  commercial  and  political  system  of  two 
peoples,  all  whose  interests  were  confounded."  To  this 
proposal,  the  vague  generalities  of  which  seemed  rather 
alarming,  it  was  answered  that  nothing  could  be  defini- 
tively concluded  without  the  concurrence  of  the  Senate, 
which  was  not  to  meet  again  till  the  autumn ;  and  there 
the  matter  appears  to  have  rested.  The  request  for 
money  was  met  by  a  statement  that  the  United  States 
had  no  means  of  anticipating  the  payment  of  the  French 
debt  except  by  borrowing  money  in  Europe,  which  could 
not  be  done  at  present  on  favorable  terms.  Nor  did 
Hamilton  hesitate  to  tell  Genet  that,  even  were  there 
no  other  obstacle,  tb*i  anticipation  of  payment  at  this 


DIPLOMATIC    INTERCOURSE    WITH    GENET.    421 

time  might  be  regarded  by  Great  Britain  as  a  breach  of  CHAPTEIJ 

neutrality.      Greatly  disappointed  and  offended  at  this 

reply,  Genet  expressed  his  intention  to  make  the  debt  to  1793. 
France  available  for  his  purposes  by  giving  assignments  June  14> 
of  it  in  payment  for  provisions  and  other  supplies.     But 
to  this  the  American  government  decidedly  objected,  ex- 
pressing the  hope  that,  in  a  matter  of  mutual  concern, 
nothing  would  be  done  but  by  mutual  consent. 

Genet  assented  to  the  restoration  of  the  Grange,  but  May  z. 
protested  very  vehemently  against  the  resolutions  of  the 
cabinet  on  the  subject  of  privateers.  He  alleged  that  the 
privateers  commissioned  by  him  were  owned  by  French 
houses  at  Charleston,  were  commanded  by  French  offi- 
cers, or  by  Americans  who  knew  of  no  law  or  treaty  to 
prevent  their  acceptance  of  commissions,  and  who  had 
gone  to  sea  by  consent  of  the  governor  of  South  Caro- 
lina. As  the  treaty  of  commerce  secured  to  the  parties 
the  right  of  bringing  prizes  into  each  other's  ports,  that 
provision  must  include  the  control  and  disposal  of  the 
prizes  so  brought  in.  He  also  argued  that  the  twenty- 
second  article  of  the  treaty,  forbidding  either  party  to 
allow  the  enemies  of  the  other  to  fit  out  privateers  in 
their  ports,  must  be  understood,  by  what  the  lawyers  call 
a  negative  pregnant,  to  imply  a  mutual  right  in  the  par- 
ties themselves  to  fit  out  privateers  in  the  ports  of  the 
other.  As  to  the  Americans  on  board  the  privateers, 
they  must  be  considered,  in  taking  part  with  France,  to 
have  renounced  for  the  time  the  protection  of  their  own 
country,  which  therefore  became  no  longer  responsible  for 
their  conduct. 

Just  before  Genet's  arrival  at  Philadelphia,  one  of  the 
privateers  fitted  out  at  Charleston,  and  named  the  Citi- 
zen Genet,  after  the  French  minister,  had  ascended  the 
Delaware,  bringing  with  her  one  out  of  four  prizes  she 


422  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  had  taken.      This  led  to  anothar  cabinet  council,  which 

VI. 

, resulted  in  an  intimation  to  Genet  that  the  privateer,  his 

1793.  namesake,  must  depart  forthwith  from  the  waters  of  the 
United  States ;  in  orders  sent  to  all  the  ports  to  seize 
all  vessels  fitted  out  as  privateers,  and  to  prevent  the 
sale  of  any  prizes  captured  by  such  vessels  ;  and  in  the  ar- 
rest of  Citizens  Henfield  and  Singleterry,  two  Americans 
who  had  enlisted  on  board  the  Citizen  Genet  at  Charles- 
ton, and  against  whom,  at  least  against  Henfield^  an  in- 
dictment was  presently  found.  "  The  crime  laid  to  their 

June  i.  charge,"  said  the  French  minister,  in  a  note  of  inquiry  on 
the  subject,  "the  crime,  which  my  mind  can  not  conceive, 
and  which  my  pen  almost  refuses  to  state,  is  the  serving 
of  France,  and  the  defending  with  her  children  the  com- 
mon and  glorious  cause  of  liberty."  To  this  impassioned 
appeal  Jefferson  replied  by  sending  a  copy  of  the  attorney 
general's  opinion,  that  Henfield,  in  enlisting  on  board  a 
foreign  privateer  to  serve  against  nations  at  peace  with 
the  United  States,  was  acting  in  violation  of  treaties,  the 
supreme  law  of  the  land,  and  was  guilty  of  an  indictable 

June  5.  offense.  This  was  presently  followed  by  another  note,  in 
which  was  reiterated,  though  in  very  mild  terms,  the  fixed 
opinion  of  the  president,  that  it  was  the  right  of  every 
nation,  and  the  duty  of  neutral  nations,  to  prohibit  acts 
of  sovereignty  within  their  limits  injurious  to  either  of 
the  warring  powers  ;  that  the  granting  of  military  com- 
missions within  the  United  States  by  any  foreign  author- 
ity was  an  infringement  of  their  sovereignty,  especially 
when  granted  to  American  citizens  as  an  inducement  to 
act  against  the  duty  which  they  owed  to  their  own  coun- 
try ;  and  that  the  least  to  be  expected  was  the  immediate 
departure  of  any  vessels  which  might,  prior  to  this  warn- 
ing, have  been  so  illegally  commissioned  and  equipped. 

June  8.        Genet,  in  reply,  denounce/  these  doctrines  as  contra* 


FRENCH   FACTION.  423 

ry  to  the  principles  of  natural  right,  the  usages  of  na-  CHAPTEB 

tions,  the  French  treaties,  and  even  the  proclamation  of 

neutrality.  The  commissioning  of  privateers,  which  he  1793 
seemed  disposed  to  represent  as  a  mere  arming  for  de- 
fense, was,  in  his  opinion,  not  an  act  of  sovereignty, 
but  of  consular  administration,  li  which,  without  an  act 
of  Congress  to  that  effect,  the  president  had  no  right  to 
prevent."  He  offered,  however,  by  way  of  compromise, 
to  confine  the  grant  of  commissions  to  such  commanders 
as  would  bind  themselves,  by  oath  and  security,  to  respect 
the  territory  of  the  United  States  and  the  political  opin- 
ions of  the  president  until  "  the  representatives  of  the 
sovereign" — meaning  the  representatives  of  the  people 
assembled  in  Congress — should  confirm  or  reject  them. 
On  the  support  of  the  people  he  evidently  relied.  "  Their 
fraternal  voice,"  he  wrote,  "  has  resounded  from  every 
quarter  around'  me,  and  their  accents  are  not  equivocal 
— they  are  pure  as  the  hearts  of  those  by  whom  they 
are  expressed." 

Still  more  vehement  were  the  remonstrances  of  Genet 
at  the  seizure  at  New  York  of  a  French  privateer  fitted  June  u 
out  there,  and  just  ready  to  go  to  sea,  by  a  body  of  militia    ' 
ordered  out  for  that  purpose  by  Governor  Clinton,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  recent  instructions  from  Philadelphia. 

Already,  indeed,  an  open  struggle  had  commenced,  the 
result  of  which  for  some  time  appeared  quite  doubtful, 
between  the  executive  authority  of  the  United  States  on 
the  one  hand,  and  Genet  and  the  French  faction  on  the 
other,  Freneau's  Gazette  and  the  General  Advertiser, 
both  printed  at  the  seat  of  government — the  latter  fa- 
mous afterward  as  the  Aurora,  published  by  Bache,  a 
grandson  of  Franklin,  who  had  received  his  education  in 
France,  and  was  totally  carried  away  by  the  French 
Canaticism — assailed  the  proclamation  of  neutrality  with 


424  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  great  violence,  as  a  piece  of  usurpation  on  the  part  of 
the  executive,  issued  without  authority,  and  in  deroga- 

1793.  tion  of  the -treaties  with  France,  of  the  gratitude  and 
sympathy  due  to  that  country,  and  of  the  rights  of  Con- 
gress, to  whom  only  the  decision  belonged.  Genet  was 
exhorted  to  act  with  firmness,  since  the  people  were  his 
friends,  and  since  it  was  they,  and  not  the  president,  who 
were  sovereigns.  The  key-note  thus  struck  at  Phila- 
delphia was  soon  responded  to  by  Greenleaf's  Patriotic 
Register  at  New  York,  by  the  Chronicle  at  Boston,  and, 
indeed,  by  the  opposition  presses  generally. 

May  23.  It  appears  from  Jefferson's  Ana  that,  in  a  private 
conversation  about  this  time,  Washington  expressed  his 
opinion  of  Freneau's  paper  in  terms  amounting  to  an 
intimation  that  Jefferson's  interposition  was  desired,  and 
perhaps  the  dismissal  of  Freneau  from  his  office  of 
translating  clerk.  "  But  that,"  observes  this  faithful 
secretary,  "  I  would  not  do ;"  and  he  proceeds,  with  a 
partiality  little  short  of  paternal,  to  extol  Freneau's  pa^ 
per  as  having  saved  the  Constitution,  then  fast  gallop- 
ing into  a  monarchy. 

Nor  was  it  from  newspapers  only  that  Genet  found 
encouragement  and  support.      Shortly  after  his  arrival 

May  30.  at  Philadelphia,  there  had  been  formed  in  that  city,  in 
imitation  of  the  famous  clubs  of  Paris,  so  predominant 
at  that  moment  in  the  politics  of  France,  a  "Democratic 
Society,"  intended  to  have  affiliated  branches  in  all  the 
counties  of  the  state,  the  immediate  object  of  which 
seems  to  have  been  to  control  the  state  politics,  and  to 
infuse  into  them  a  larger  portion  of  the  new  French  en- 
thusiasm.  Imitations  or  offshoots  of  this  society  soon 
sprung  up  in  various  parts  of  the  Union.  French  in  all 
their  feelings,  and  not  a  few  of  them  Frenchmen  by 
birth,  inspired  with  all  the  fanaticism  then  prevalent  in 


DEMOCRATIC    SOCIETIES.  425 

France,  the  members  of  these  societies  seemed  bent  upon  CHAP-TO 

VI. 

forcing  the  United  States  into  that  "  family  compact," 

that  "confusion  of  interests,"  which  Genet  had  suggest-  1793. 
ed  as  one  of  the  objects  of  his  mission.  It  was  these 
societies  which  first  introduced  the  name  DEMOCRAT, 
as  a  party  appellation,  into  American  politics ;  but  a 
long  time  elapsed  before  that  name  was  accepted  by  any 
but  the  more  ultra  portion  of  the  opposition.  It  was 
never  recognized  by  Jefferson  ;  and  even  of  these  soci- 
eties, several  preferred  to  call  themselves  Republican. 
It  was  only  in  combination  with  that  earlier  name  that 
the  epithet  Democratic  came  into  general  use,  the  com- 
bined opposition  taking  to  themselves  the  title  of  DEM- 
OCRATIC REPUBLICANS. 

The  enthusiasm  in  favor  of  France,  to  which  the  re- 
cent opening  of  the  French  West  India  ports  tended  to 
add,  operated  very  much  to  diminish  the  support  which 
the  federal  government  had  hitherto  received  from  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania,  and  especially  from  the  city  of 
Philadelphia.  Governor  Mifflin  and  Chief  Justice 
M'Kean,  altogether  the  most  popular  and  influential 
men  in  that  state,  determined  also  to  retain  their  pop- 
ularity and  to  secure  Mifflin's  re-election  as  governor, 
came  out  decidedly  as  partisans  of  France,  and  openly 
in  favor  of  a  war  with  Great  Britain.  Frederic  A. 
Muhlenburg,  speaker  of  the  first  Congress  and  member 
elect  to  the  new  one,  took  the  same  side.  The  respecta- 
ble Rittenhouse  accepted  the  post  of  president  of  the 
Democratic  Society,  of  which  Duponceau  was  secretary, 
while  Sergeant,  the  attorney  general  of  the  state,  as  well 
as  several  other  well-known  leaders  among  the  old  Rev- 
olutionary Whigs,  were  active  and  zealous  members. 
Among  the  most  busy  in  this  movement  was  Alexander  J. 
Dallas,  Mifflin's  secretary  of  state,  a  native  of  Jamaica. 


426  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  but  educated  in  Edinburgh,  and  an  emigrant  to  the 
United  States  since  the  conclusion  of  the  Revolutionary 
1793.  war.  For  some  time  he  had  with  difficulty  supported 
himself  with  his  pen,  having  undertaken  the  editorship 
of  a  monthly  magazine.  But  his  ability  and  adroitness 
had  raised  him  to  a  high  rank  at  the  bar,  and  he  had 
begun  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  politics  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. Among  other  recent  steps  by  Mifflin's  political 
friends  to  secure  their  hold  upon  that  state  had  been  the 
obtaining  a  charter,  during  the  past  winter,  for  the  Bank 
of  Pennsylvania,  in  which  the  state  itself  became  a  stock- 
holder, an  imitation,  in  fact,  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  and  intended  as  an  offset  to  the  old^  Bank  of 
North  America,  the  control  of  which  was  in  hands  less 
friendly  to  Mifflin. 

By  the  indications  of  a  strong  popular  sentiment  in 
his  favor,  Genet  was  encouraged  to  set  the  remonstrances 
of  the  government  at  defiance,  and  to  persist  in  his  orig- 
inal policy  of  carrying  on,  from  the  ports  of  the  United 
States,  a  privateering  warfare  against  British  commerce 
He  was  taught  by  the  opposition  newspapers  to  believe 
— and  it  would  seem  that  even  Jefferson  himself  made 
confidential  communications  of  the  same  sort  —  that 
Washington  was  acting  under  the  influence  of  a  British 
monarchical  faction,  and  that  every  thing  was  to  be  hoped 
from  the  predominance  of  republican  opinions  in  the  nev 
Congress  now  in  the  progress  of  being  chosen. 

Besides  the  Sans  Culotte  and  the  Citizen  Genet,  the 
two  privateers  fitted  out  at  Charleston,  and  both  of  which 
persisted  in  cruising  from  the  ports  of  the  United  States, 
two  others,  the  Cincinnatus  and  Vanqueur  de  la  Bastile, 
were  equipped  at  the  same  port,  the  Anti- George  at  Sa- 
vannah, the  Carmagniole  in  the  Delaware,  a  schooner, 
the  Roland,  and  a  sloop,  at  Boston.  In  conjunction  with 


GENET'S    PROCEEDINGS.  42? 

the  frigates  L' Ambuscade  and  Concord,  those  cruisers  CHAPTER 

captured  more  than  fifty  British  vessels,  quite  a  number 

within  the  very  waters  of  the  United  States.  The  French  1793 
consuls,  in  spite  of  the  prohibitions  hitherto  issued,  still 
persisted  in  trying  and  condemning  these  prizes,  not, 
however,  without  occasional  appeals,  on  the  part  of  the 
British  owners,  to  the  legal  tribunals  for  the  rescue  of 
their  property.  But  it  was  in  the  case  of  the  Little  Sa- 
rah, an  English  vessel  captured  by  the  frigate  L' Am- 
buscade, and  sent  into  Philadelphia,  where  Genet,  under 
the  very  eye  of  the  federal  authorities,  undertook  to  equip 
her  as  a  privateer,  with  the  new  name  of  the  Little 
Democrat,  that  the  authority  of  the  government  was 
most  distinctly  trampled  under  foot.  This  equipment, 
discovered  by  Hamilton,  was  communicated  by  him  to  the 
cabinet,  to  which  Washington,  during  a  short  absence  at 
Mount  Vernon,  had  intrusted  the  control  of  affairs.  An 
investigation  was  ordered,  the  fact  was  ascertained,  and  the  July  o 
probability,  also,  that  the  vessel  might  sail  the  next  day. 
Governor  Mifflin  being  called  upon  to  interfere,  sent  Dal- 
las, his  secretary  of  state,  at  midnight,  to  request  Genet 
to  save  the  necessity  of  employing  force  by  himself  de- 
taining the  vessel.  Upon  receipt  of  this  message  the 
French  minister  fell  into  a  great  rage.  The  president, 
he  said,  was  a  misled  man,  wholly  under  the  influence 
of  those  inimical  to  France.  He  was  resolved  to  appeal 
from  him  to  the  people,  the  real  sovereigns — an  intention 
already  intimated  in  some  of  his  official  letters,  and  still 
more  distinctly  stated  in  subsequent  ones. 

As  Genet  would  give  no  distinct  pledge,  Mifflin  or- 
dered out  a  detachment  of  militia  to  seize  the  vessel. 
But,  before  this  decisive  step  was  taken,  Jefferson,  al- 
ways very  tender  of  the  feelings  of  the  French  minister, 
and  very  fearful  of  any  disrespect  to  the  French  republic. 


428  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  waited  on  Genet  in  person,  to  induce  him  to  detain  her 
till  the  arrival  of  the  president,  who  was  expected  in  a 

1793.  day  or  two.     Genet  again  broke  out  into  the  same  coin- 

Tuly  7.  plaints  as  before.  He  declared  that  any  attempt  at 
seizure  would  be  resisted  by  the  crew  ;  but  he  intima- 
ted, at  the  same  time,  that  the  ship  was  not  yet  ready 
for  sea,  and  that,  although  she  intended  to  drop  a  little 
way  down  the  river,  it  was  not  with  the  design  of  sail- 
ing. Jefferson  caught  at  this  bait ;  and  on  his  suggest- 
ion to  Mifflin  that  the  vessel  would  not  sail  immediately, 
the  militia  were  dismissed.  Knox  and  Hamilton  the 

Julys,  next  day  proposed  to  erect  a  battery  on  Mud  Island, 
and  to  fire  at,  and  even  to  sink,  the  privateer  if  she  at- 
tempted to  pass.  But  in  this  Jefferson  would  not  con- 
cur ;  and  she  soon  afterward  fell  down  to  Chester,  quite 
beyond  the  reach  of  any  means  then  within  the  power 
of  the  government  to  stop  her. 

'uly  11.  On  his  arrival  at  Philadelphia,  having  examined  the 
papers  relating  to  this  affair,  Washington  addressed  a 
note  to  Jefferson  intimating  some  discontent  at  these 
proceedings.  "  What  is  to  be  done  in  the  case  of  the 
Little  Sarah  ?  Is  the  minister  of  the  French  republic 
to  set  the  acts  of  this  government  at  defiance  with  im- 
punity, and  then  threaten  the  executive  with  an  appeal 
July,  to  the  people  ?"  The  next  day,  at  a  cabinet  council,  it 
was  resolved  to  refer  to  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court 
the  case  of  the  Little  Democrat,  as  well  as  of  several 
other  privateers  and  their  prizes — indeed,  all  the  questions 
that  had  been  raised  as  to  the  duties  of  neutrality  ;  and 
Genet  was  informed  that  the  detention  of  these  vessels 
was  expected  until  a  final  decision  was  had.  But,  in 
spite  of  this  intimation,  the  Little  Democrat  sailed  a  few 
days  after,  and  the  other  vessels  took  the  earliest  oppor 
tunity  to  imitate  her  example. 


ATTACK  AND  DEFENSE  OF  WASHINGTON'S  POLICY.  429 


Meanwhile  Democratic  societies  continued  to  spread 

. 

and  multiply,  and  the  attacks  upon  the  president  in  the 
opposition  papers  to  grow  more  and  more  violent.  Un-  1793 
der  these  circumstances,  Hamilton  took  the  field  in  de- 
fense of  the  proclamation  of  neutrality  in  a  series  of 
articles  under  the  signature  of  Pacificus,  in  which  he 
maintained,  with  great  ability,  not  only  the  policy  of 
that  measure,  but  the  president's  right,  by  its  issue,  to 
decide  upon  the  position  in  which  the  nation  stood.  To 
these  articles  a  reply  appeared,  signed  Helvidius,  and 
written  by  Madison  at  the  special  instigation  and  request 
of  Jefferson,  who  still  continued  to  play  the  somewhat 
inconsistent  parts  of  secret  head  of  the  opposition  and 
leading  member  of  the  administration.  In  the  letter  July  » 
pressing  Madison  to  take  upon  himself  the  task  of  an- 
swering "  Hamilton's  heresies,"  the  assumption  especial- 
ly that  the  president  had  a  right  to  decide  the  question 
of  neutrality,  Genet  is  spoken  of  as  a  hot-headed,  pas- 
sionate man,  without  judgment,  likely  by  his  indecency 
to  excite  the  public  indignation,  and  rendering  Jefferson's 
own  position  "  immensely  difficult."  Indeed,  he  soon 
felt  himself  in  a  position  so  awkward  as  to  send  a  note  'July  3i 
to  the  president  expressing  his  intention  to  resign  at  the 
close  of  the  ensuing  month  of  September. 

Washington's  feelings  at  the  violence  with  which  his 
policy  began  to  be  assailed  were  strongly  expressed  in  a 
letter  to  Henry  Lee.  "  That  there  are  in  this,  as  well  July  3i 
as  in  all  other  countries,  discontented  characters,  I  well 
know,  as  also  that  these  characters  are  actuated  by 
very  different  views;  some  good,  from  an  opinion  that 
the  measures  of  the  general  government  are  impure  ; 
some  bad,  and,  if  I  might  be  allowed  to  use  so  harsh  an 
expression,  diabolical,  inasmuch  as  they  are  not  only 
meant  to  impede  the  measures  of  the  government  geiier- 


430  HISTORY   OF  THE    UNITED    STATES, 

CHAPTER  ally,  but  more  especially,  as  a  great  means  toward  the 
'  accomplishment  of  it,  to  destroy  the  confidence  which  it 
1793.  is  necessary  for  the  people  to  place,  until  they  have  un- 
equivocal proof  of  demerit,  in  their  public  servants.  In 
this  light  I  consider  myself,  while  I  am  an  occupant  of 
office ;  and  if  they  were  to  go  further,  and  call  me  their 
slave,  I  would  not  dispute  the  point. 

"  But  in  what  will  this  abuse  terminate  ?  For  the 
result,  as  it  respects  myself,  I  care  not ;  for  I  have  a 
consolation  within  that  no  earthly  efforts  can  deprive  me 
of,  and  that  is,  that  neither  ambition  nor  interested  mo- 
tives have  influenced  my  conduct.  The  arrows  of  ma- 
levolence, therefore,  however  barbed  and  well  pointed, 
never  can  reach  the  most  vulnerable  part  of  me,  though, 
while  I  am  up  as  a  mark,  they  will  be  continually  aimed. 
The  publications  in  Freneau's  and  Bache's  papers  are 
outrages  on  common  decency  ;  and  they  progress  in  that 
style  in  proportion  as  their  pieces  are  treated  with  con- 
tempt and  are  passed  by  in  silence  by  those  at  whom 
they  are  aimed.  The  tendency  of  them,  however,  is  too 
obvious  to  be  mistaken  by  men  of  cool  and  dispassionate 
*  minds,  and,  in  my  opinion,  ought  to  alarm  them,  because 
it  is  difficult  to  set  bounds  to  the  effect." 

Meanwhile,  the  embarrassments  of  the  government 
continued  to  increase.  The  judge  of  the  Pennsylvania 
district  had  decided  that  he  had  no  power  to  interfere  for 
the  restoration  of  prizes  captured  within  the  waters  of 
the  United  States,  that  being  rather  a  question  of  poli- 
tics than  of  property.  The  judges  also  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  who  had  been  appealed  to  as  to  the  rights  and 
duties  of  the  United  States  growing  out  of  their  neutral 
position,  were  unwilling  to  give  any  opinion  on  the  sub- 
ject, unless  in  some  suit  legally  brought  before  them. 
The  indictment  against  Hatfield  coming  on  for  trial,  in 


CABINET    CONSULTATIONS.  43] 

spite  of  a  clear  case  on  the  evidence,  and  a  distinct  and  CHAPTEB 

positive  charge  as  to  the  law  from  the  presiding  judges, 

the  prisoner  was  acquitted  by  the  jury,  to  the  vast  de-  1793. 
light  of  the  French  faction,  and  amid  the  acclamations 
of  the  assembled  multitude.  Genet's  correspondence 
grew  every  day  more  insolent ;  and,  as  the  necessity  of 
some  decided  course  was  apparent,  a  new  cabinet  coun- 
cil was  held  to  consider  what  should  be  done.  Aug.  1-3. 

After  reading  over  Genet's  correspondence,  it  was 
unanimously  agreed  to  send  a  copy  of  the  whole,  with  a 
full  statement  of  Genet's  conduct,  to  Gouverneur  Morris, 
to  be  laid  before  the  Executive  Council  of  France,  with 
a  letter  requesting  his  recall.  Jefferson  was  for  express- 
ing this  desire  with  great  delicacy  ;  the  others  were  for 
peremptory  terms.  It  was  also  resolved  to  furnish  Ge- 
net with  a  statement,  the  same  in  substance  with  that 
sent  to  France,  and  to  let  him  know  that  his  recall  had 
been  demanded — a  course  warmly  opposed  by  Jefferson, 
who  gave  as  his  reasons  that  it  would  render  Genet  still 
more  active,  and  might  even  endanger  confusion.  It 
was  next  proposed  to  publish  the  whole  correspondence, 
with  a  statement  of  all  the  proceedings,  by  way  of  that 
very  appeal  to  the  people  which  Genet  had  threatened. 
This  truly  democratic  course,  so  necessary  at  the  pres- 
ent moment  to  bring  out  an  expression  of  public  opinion 
in  support  of  the  government,  and  of  which  the  wise  pol- 
icy was  afterward  tested  by  experience,  though  very 
warmly  advocated  by  Hamilton,  and  though  Washington 
was  much  inclined  to  adopt  it,  was  defeated  by  the  op- 
position o.  Jefferson  and  Randolph.  Such  an  appeal, 
they  urged,  might  give  offense  to  France,  and  cause  her 
to  retract  her  offer  of  a  treaty  of  commerce.  Genet 
would  also  appeal ;  and  as  there  had  been  differences  of 
opinion  in  the  cabinet  as  to  the  decisions  arrived  at,  sa 


4^2  HISTORY    OF   THE    L'NITED    STATL'b 

CHAPTER  there  would  be  differences  in  public  opinion.  One  point 
'  likely  to  have  great  weight  with  Washington  was  very 
1793.  artfully  touched:  such  an  appeal  would  tend  to  convert 
him  from  the  head  of  the  nation  into  the  head  of  a  party 
In  the  course  of  this  discussion,  on  an  allusion  by  Knox 
to  some  recent  libels,  Washington  became  very  much 
excited,  and,  as  Jefferson  records  with  evident  exulta- 
tion, "got  into  one  of  those  passions  when  he  can  not  com- 
mand himself;  ran  on  much  on  the  personal  abuse  which 
had  been  bestowed  upon  him ;  defied  any  man  on  earth 
to  produce  one  single  act  of  his,  since  he  had  been  in  the 
government,  which  had  not  been  done  on  the  purest  mo- 
tives. He  had  never  repented  but  once  the  having  slip- 
ped the  moment  of  resigning  his  office,  and  that  was 
every  moment  since ;  and,  by  God,  he  had  rather  be  in 
his  grave  than  in  his  present  situation.  He  had  rather 
be  on  his  farm  than  to  be  made  emperor  of  the  world ; 
and  yet  they  were  charging  him  with  wanting  to  be  a 
king.  That  rascal  Freneau  sent  him  three  of  his  papers 
every  day,  as  if  he  would  become  the  distributor  of  them, 
an  act  in  which  he  could  see  nothing  but  an  impudent 
design  to  insult  him."  It  was  only  for  a  moment,  and 
that  very  rarely,  that  Washington  ever  lost  his  self-com- 
mand. He  soon  recovered  himself,  and  the  discussions 
went  on.  A  circular  was  agreed  upon,  to  be  addressed 
to  the  collectors  of  the  customs,  setting  forth  what  might 
and  what  might  not  be  done  by  the  ships  of  the  bellig- 
erents within  the  waters  of  the  United  States ;  and  di- 
recting them  to  keep  strict  watch  upon  whatever  passed 
within  the  harbors,  creeks,  and  inlets  of  their  respective 
districts,  and  upon  discovery  of  any  thing  suspicious,  to 
give  immediate  notice  to  the  United  States  attorney  for 
the  district  and  to  the  governor  of  the  state.  To  the 
state  governors  requests  had  already  been  sent  to  exert 


DIFFERENCES  IN  THE  CABINET. 

all  their  authority,  to  the  extent  of  calling  out  the  rmli-  CHAPTEK 
tia  if  necessary,  for  the  seizure  and  detention  of  prizes  ' 
illegally  taken,  and  of  all  vessels  violating  the  neutrality  1793. 
of  the  United  States.  Information  was  communicated 
to  the  British  minister  that  compensation  would  be  made 
to  the  owners  of  British  vessels  captured  by  French  pri- 
vateers fitted  out  within  the  United  States  subsequent 
to  the  notice  to  Genet  of  June  5th  that  such  equipments 
would  not  be  allowed.  But  for  the  future,  as  the  gov- 
ernment intended  to  exert  all  the  means  in  its  power  for 
the  prevention  of  such  breaches  of  neutrality,  the  British 
government  must  regard  those  efforts  as  a  full  discharge 
of  neutral  obligations.  Genet  was  called  upon  to  give 
up  all  the  vessels  captured  under  the  above-mentioned 
circumstances,  as  otherwise  the  French  government 
would  be  held  responsible  for  the  pecuniary  amount  of 
the  necessary  indemnities ;  also,  all  vessels  captured 
within  the  waters  of  the  United  States — the  distance  of 
a  marine  league  from  the  exterior  coast  being  fixed  as  the 
limit. 

Considering  the  prevailing  ignorance  on  the  part  of 
the  people  as  to  the  exact  duties  which  a  position  of 
neutrality  imposed,  and  the  strong  sentiment  felt  by 
many  that  the  United  States  ought  to  side  with  France 
at  any  rate,  impelled  thereto  as  well  by  treaty  obliga- 
tions as  political  sympathy,  the  position  of  the  cabinet 
would  have  been  sufficiently  difficult  even  had  all  its 
members  been  firmly  united. 

But  to  all  the  former  points  of  difference  between  Jef- 
ferson and  Hamilton,  new  ones  had  been  added,  not  onjy 
as  to  the  meaning  and  effect  of  the  proclamation  of  neu  • 
traiity,  but  as  to  the  entire  policy  to  be  pursued  by  the 
government  with  respect  to  the  belligerents.  Hamilton 
considered  the  president's  proclamation  as  having  decided 
IV  — E  E 


434  HISTORY   OP   THE  UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  question  in  favor  of  a  rigid  neutrality,  and  as  amount- 
.  ing  to  a  suspension  of  the  guarantee  during  the  pending 

1793.  war.  Jefferson,  on  the  other  hand,  regarded  the  procla- 
mation as  a  merely  reserving  the  question  till  Congress 
could  meet.  He  considered  the  guarantee  in  full  bind- 
ing force  ;  and  though  he  was  not  disposed  to  plunge  the 
United  States  into  the  war,  if  it  could  be  avoided,  he 
was  not  the  less  inclined  to  favor  France  by  all  possible 
means. 

To  accept  his  proffered  resignation  would  lead  to  great- 
er unanimity  in  the  cabinet,  but  it  would  also  expose  the 
government  to  new  and  more  dangerous  assaults.  Wash- 
ington's confidence  in  Jefferson's  personal  honor  and  po- 
litical integrity  was  as  yet  unshaken.  It  was  certain 
that  Jefferson  himself  possessed  the  confidence  of  a  pow- 
erful and  growing  party,  and  that  his  retirement  from 
office  would  be  at  once  denounced  as  the  triumph  of  anti- 
republican  principles  in  the  cabinet.  He  was,  therefore, 
solicited  to  remain,  and  readily  agreed  to  postpone  his 
resignation  till  the  close  of  the  year.  By  that  time  the 
new  Congress  would  be  in  session,  containing,  at  least 
in  the  Lower  House  (so  Jefferson  fondly  expected),  a  Re- 
publican majority  able  to  hold  Hamilton  in  check.  Should 
he  retire  before  the  meeting  of  Congress,  leaving  Hamil- 
ton uncontrolled  in  the  cabinet,  advantage  might  be  taken 
of  the  folly  and  insolence  of  Genet  to  bring  the  people 
over  to  Hamilton's  views,  and  perhaps  to  embroil  the 
United  States  with  France.  Such  we  may  conjecture 
to  have  been  Jefferson's  motives  for  continuing  in  the 
cabinet,  in  spite  of  the  "  immense  difficulty"  of  his  equiv- 
ocal position,  and  for  undertaking  the  composition  of  the 
proposed  letter  to  Morris,  containing  a  statement  of  Ge- 
Aug  23.  net's  conduct,  and  requesting  his  recall.  As  finally  agreed 
to  by  the  cabinet,  this  was  a  very  able  and  vigorous  doc- 


REACTION  IN  FAVOR  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT.  435 

fcment.  Genet,  indeed,  in  his  comments  upon  it,  bitterly  CHAPTER 
reproached  Jefferson  with  having  allowed  himself  to  be  ' 
made  the  instrument  of  so  ungenerous  an  attack,  "after  1793. 
pretending  to  be  his  friend  and  initiating  him  into  mys- 
teries which  had  inflamed  his  hatred  against  all  those 
who  aspire  to  an  absolute  power"- — pregnant  allusions  to 
a  confidential  intercourse  between  the  French  ernbassa- 
dor  and  the  Secretary  of  State,  very  different  from  the 
tenor  of  their  official  correspondence.  The  same  confi- 
dential intercourse  seems  to  be  further  alluded  to  in 
Genet's  sarcastic  intimation  "  that  it  was  not  in  his 
character  to  speak,  as  many  people  do,  in  one  way,  and 
to  act  in  another — to  have  an  official  language  and  a  lan- 
guage confidential."  These  side  thrusts,  to  which  no  re- 
ply was  ever  made,  make  it  easy  to  see  that  Jefferson  had 
not  exaggerated  the  difficulty  of  the  position  in  which 
Genet's  imprudent  violence  had  placed  him. 

Pending  this  application  for  the  recall  of  Genet,  the 
balance,  which  had  seemed  so  doubtful,  began  at  length 
to  settle  down  in  the  government's  favor.  Hitherto  a 
few  noisy  enthusiasts,  a  few  violent  newspapers,  and  the 
newly-organized  democratic  clubs,  had  taken  it  upon 
themselves  to  speak,  and  had  made  Genet  believe — if, 
indeed.  Jefferson  himself  did  not  incline  to  the  same  opin- 
ion— that  they  were  speaking  the  sentiments  of  the 
American  people,  The  apathy  with  which  this  usurpa- 
tion  had  been  allowed,  on  the  part  of  the  great  body  of 
more  sober  citizens,  presently  gave  way  before  the  con- 
sideration that,  if  suffered  to  go  on,  it  would  inevitably 
involve  the  country  in  a  war  with  England,  and  would 
thus  sweep  from  the  ocean  all  that  growing  commerce 
which  had  given  such  a  start  to  the  public  prosperity. 
Though  the  advice  of  Jefferson  and  Randolph  had  pre- 
vented a  publication  of  the  correspondence  with  Genet, 


436  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

CHAPTER  hints  already  began  to  leak  out  as  to  the  insolence  of  his 
_____  conduct.     On  the  occasion  of  a  visit  of  his  to  New  York, 
.1  793.  to  receive  the  compliments  of  his  partisans  there,  a  state- 
\ug.  8.  ment  of  his  having  insulted  the  president,  by  threats  to 
appeal  to  the  people,  appeared  in  one  of  the  city  news- 
papers, and  when  the  truth  of  that  statement  was  denied, 
Chief  Justice  Jay  and  Rufus  King  assumed  the  respons- 
ibility of  it.      The  reference  was  to  the  threats  made  to 
Dallas,  of  which  an  account  has  been  given  above.     This 
statement  drew  out  a  letter  from  Genet  to  the  president, 
in  which,  after  many  complaints  of  the  treatment  he  had 
received,  he  put  the  question  whether  Washington  had 
been  threatened,  as  this  statement  alleged.      Genet  re- 
Aug.  22.  ceivsd   a   note,   in   reply,   from   the    State  Department, 
which   he  had  the  folly  to  publish  along  with  his  own 
letter,  informing  him  that  direct  correspondence  with  the 
executive  was  not  according  to  diplomatic  usage,   and 
that  the  president  did  not  think  fit  to  make  any  state- 
ment as  to  a  declaration  which,  whether  made  to  him  or 
to  others,  was,  perhaps,  immaterial. 

The  appeal  to  the  people  was  thus  actually  made  ;  for 
the  published  correspondence  "was  a  sufficient  indication 
how  matters  stood,  Genet's  letter  being  little  better  than 
a  bill  of  indictment  against  the  president.  The  same 
day  that  Genet's  partisans  in  New  York  had  received 
him  with  the  ringing  of  bells  and  the  firing  of  cannon, 
a  public  meeting  had  been  held  in  that  city,  in  approval 
of  the  policy  of  the  proclamation  of  neutrality.  This  ex- 
ample was  soon  followed  in  all  the  principal  towns  and 
cities,  and  a  demonstration  of  public  opinion  speedily  ap- 
peared, which  added  effectual  weight  to  the  orders  lately 
issued  by  the  government  for  the  strict  observance  of 
neutral  duties.  The  more  violent  French  partisans,  and 
the  newspapers  in  that  interest,  exerted  themselves  with 


REACTION  IN  FAVOR  0?  THE  GOVERNMENT.  43-, 

vigor  to  check  this  counteracting  tide  of  public  senti-  CHAPTER 

ment,  and  to  defend  the  course  of  the  French  minister , 

Dallas  came  to  his  assistance  with  some  modification  or  1793. 
softening  of  the  report  he  had  made  of  the  threats  to  him  of 
an  appeal  to  the  people,  and  Genet  was  thus  encouraged 
to  demand  of  the  president  that  Jay  and  King,  who  were 
assailed  by  the  opposition  newspapers  in  the  grossest 
terms,  should  be  prosecuted  for  libel.  This  the  attorney 
general  declined,  at  the  same  time  informing  Genet  that 
the  law  was  oj)en  to  him  to  commence  a  prosecution  on 
his  own  account.  All  this  did  but  damage  Genet  still 
the  more  in  the  estimate  of  all  reasonable  people.  But 
while  the  determination  was  very  emphatically  expressed 
to  allow  no  foreign  interference  between  the  people  and 
the  government,  the  general  tenor  of  the  resolutions 
adopted  expressed  also  a  very  warm  friendship  and  sym- 
pathy for  France. 

As  the  French  consuls  and  vice-consuls  were  still  dis- 
posed to  exercise  their  pretended  admiralty  jurisdiction, 
a  circular  was  issued  threatening  to  revoke  the  exequa-  Sept.  i 
tur — the  permission,  that  is,  on  the  part  of  the  Ameri- 
can government  to  exercise  consular  authority — of  any 
officer  who  might  persist  in  such  usurpation.  In  case 
of  the  French  vice-consul  at  Boston,  it  soon  became 
necessary  to  carry  this  threat  into  execution.  He  had  Cot. 
the  insolence,  by  the  help  if  a  French  frigate  at  anchor 
in  that  harbor,  to  rescue  out  of  the  hands  of  the  United 
States  marshal  a  vessel  brought  in  as  a  French  prize, 
but  upon  which  process  had  been  served  at  the  suit  of 
the  British  owners,  who  claimed  that  she  had  been  ille- 
gally captured  within  the  waters  of  the  United  States. 
The  attempt  failed,  however,  to  obtain  an  indictment 
against  this  deposed  consul  for  usurpation  of  authority. 

It  was  not  OA  the  sea-coast  alone  that  it  was  neces- 


438  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  sary  to  guard  against  Genet's  machinations.      He  had 
_  two  other  projects  on  foot :  one  for  a  military  expedition, 

1793.  to  be  organized  in  South  Carolina,  and  to  rendezvous  in 
Georgia,  for  the  invasion  of  Florida  ;  the  other  for  a  like 
expedition  against  New  Orleans,  to  be  set  on  foot  in 
Kentucky.  The  leadership  of  this  latter  expedition  had 
been  undertaken  by  George  Rogers  Clarke,  who  had  dis- 
tinguished himself  during  the  Revolutionary  war  by  the 
conquest  of  the  Illinois  country,  but  whom  t*he  combined 
influence  of  intemperance  and  pecuniary  embarrassment 
had  reduced  at  this  time  to  an  equivocal  position.  There 
were  in  the  State  of  Kentucky  very  inflammable  materi- 
als. The  refusal  by  Spain  of  the  free  navigation  of  the 
Mississippi  was  regarded  as  a  great  grievance,  and  sus- 
picions were  very  generally  entertained  that  no  proper 
efforts  had  been  made  to  secure  it.  The  newly-organ- 
ized Democratic  society  of  Lexington  had  taken  this 
matter  in  hand,  and  had  got  up  a  remonstrance  to  the 
president  and  Congress  not  a  little  extravagant  in  its 
tone.  French  emissaries  were  employed  both  in  Ken- 
tucky and  South  Carolina,  and  commissions  were  issued, 
but  both  enterprises  were  greatly  impeded  by  want  of 
money.  An  advance  of  the  remainder  of  the  debt  due 
to  France  seems  to  have  been  confidently  relied  upon  as 
a  fund  out  of  which  Genet  might  carry  on  the  various 
undertakings  intrusted  to  his  charge,  including  the  gen- 
eral superintendence  of  the  maritime  war  against  En- 
gland Qn  the  American  coast,  and  the  purchase  of  provi- 
sions for  the  supply  both  of  France  and  her  colonies.  A 
further  pecuniary  burden  was  also  thrown  upon  him  in 
consequence  of  a  new  civil  war,  in  addition  to  the  servile 
one  already  prevailing  there,  which  had  broken  out  in 
the  unhappy  colony  of  St.  Domingo  between  the  com- 
missioners lately  dispatched  thither  by  the  French  Con- 


FURTHER   PROCEEDINGS    OF    GENET.  439 

vention  and  the  former  authorities  of  the  island,  whom  CHAPTER 

VI. 

the  commissioners  accused  of  royalism  and  anti-Repub- 

lican  ideas.  1793. 

Of  the  extent  of  the  operations  intrusted  to  Genet's 
charge,  an  idea  may  be  formed  from  a  letter,  in  which 
he  again  pressed  for  authority  to  draw  upon  the  install- 
ments of  the  debt  due  to  France  for  the  years  1794  and 
1795.  "  Two  thousand  seamen  and  soldiers  whom  I 
support  are  now  on  the  eve  of  wanting  bread.  The  re- 
pairs of  our  vessels  are  at  a  stand.  The  indispensable 
expeditions  of  subsistence  for  our  colonies  and  France  are 
suspended."  But  to  this  appeal  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  replied  that,  according  to  his  view  of  the  state 
of  the  account,  the  installments  for  1794  were  already 
t  anticipated.  The  means  of  meeting  drafts  upon  the  in- 
stallments of  1795  must  entirely  depend  upon  the  suc- 
cess of  loans  to  be  negotiated  in  Europe — a  result,  in 
the  present  state  of  political  affairs,  not  to  be  relied  on. 
The  acceptance  of  such  drafts  might  therefore  endanger 
a  failure  of  payment  ruinous  to  the  credit  of  the  United 
States.  It  may  indeed  be  supposed  that  Hamilton  was 
very  little  inclined  to  supply  money  to  be  employed,  as 
there  was  too  much  reason  to  suspect  it  might  be,  in 
setting  the  neutral  policy  of  the  United  States  at  defiance. 
So  insolent,  indeed,  continued  to  be  the  whole  tone  of 
Genet's  correspondence,  and  so  open  his  attempts  to  stir 
up  the  people,  the  state  governments,  and  the  new  Con- 
gress about  to  assemble  against  the  executive,  that  Wash- 
ington proposed  to  the  cabinet  to  discontinue  his  func- 
tions and  to  order  him  away.  He  was  himself  strongly 
inclined  to  this  course,  and  Hamilton  and  Knox  were  of 
the  same  opinion ;  but  this  step,  like  that  of  publishing 
the  dispatches,  was  defeated  by  Jefferson  and  Randolph, 
against  whose  united  opinion  Washington  did  not  choose 


440  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  to  act.      They  suggested  that  Genet  would  not  obey  the 
'       order,  and  that  such  a  step  might  revive  his  popularity, 

1793.  and  give  him  a  majority  in  the  new  Congress  soon  tc 
assemble.  Besides,  the  measure  was  a  very  harsh  one, 
and  might  expose  the  United  States  to  a  declaration  of 
war  on  the  part  of  France,  the  only  nation  on  earth  sin- 
cerely their  friend. 

While  the  government  was  thus  struggling  against 
the  domineering  violence  of  Genet,  the  enthusiasm  of  his 
partisans  being  sustained  in  a  degree  by  a  general  feel- 
ing of  partiality  for  France,  the  difficulty  of  preserving 
peace  was  not  a  little  increased  by  the  course  adopted  by 
Great  Britain,  in  pursuance  of  what  she  claimed  to  be 
her  belligerent  rights.  A  rich  commerce  had  presented 
itself  to  American  shipping  in  consequence  of  the  decree  § 
of  the  French  Convention  allowing  to  neutrals  the  privi- 
leges of  French  ships.  But  not  only  did  the  British 
cruisers  claim  the  right  to  seize  French  property  on 
board  American  vessels — thus  giving  the  finishing  stroke 
to  the  misery  and  destitution  of  many  refugees  from  St 
Domingo,  flying  to  the  United  States  with  the  remnant 
of  their  property — a  proceeding  with  respect  to  which 
Genet  addressed  to  the  American  government  several  in- 
solent dispatches ;  they  also  refused  to  recognize  as  neu- 
tral that  trade  between  France  and  her  West  India  col- 
onies which  nothing  but  the  pressure  of  war  had  caused 
to  be  opened  to  other  than  French  vessels.  This  was 
the  rule  of  the  war  of  1756,  so  called  because  first 
brought  into  practice  on  that  occasion.  In  the  late 
American  war,  the  attempted  enforcement  of  this  rule 
had  produced  the  armed  neutrality  ;  but  the  same  prac- 
tice, greatly  to  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  American  mer- 
chants, was  now  again  revived.  Still  more  questionable 

/uiieS    was    another   earlier   instruction    issued   to   the   Brilish 


BRITISH    VERSION    OF    BELLIGERENT    RIGHTS.    441 

cruisers,  by  which  they  were  directed  to  seize  and  bring  CHAPTER 

in    all  vessels  loaded  with   bread-stuffs    and  bound  for 

France,  even  though  both  vessel  and  cargo  should  be  1793. 
neutral  property.  This  was  in  pursuance  of  a  project 
for  starving  out  the  French  Revolution,  the  intention  be- 
ing to  aggravate  the  famine  that  prevailed  by  cutting  off 
all  foreign  supplies.  The  ships  and  cargoes  thus  seized 
were  not,  however,  subject  to  forfeiture.  On  proof  that 
they  were  neutral  property,  the  cargoes  were  paid  for,  or 
were  released,  upon  bonds  being  given  to  land  them  in 
countries  at  peace  with  Great  Britain.  The  British  gov- 
ernment attempted  to  justify  these  proceedings  on  the 
strength  of  certain  ancient  precedents,  according  to  which 
provisions  were  contraband.  But  modern  usage  was  en- 
tirely the  other  way.  It  was  urged,  with  more  plausi- 
bility, that  as  the  greater  part  of  these  cargoes  had  been 
specially  contracted  for  by  the  French  government,  the 
trade  could  not  be  regarded  as  a  mere  private  specula- 
tion. It  was  insisted,  also,  that  the  French  government 
had  set  the  example  by  issuing  a  similar  order  a  month  May  9 
earlier — an  order  which  they  had  justified  against  Mor- 
ris's remonstrances  as  a  "  painful  necessity,"  to  which 
they  had  been  driven  by  their  "  implacable  and  ferocious 
enemies,"  who  had  avowed  the  intention  of  adding  starva- 
tion to  the  horrors  of  war.  There  was,  however,  one 
important  difference  between  the  conduct  of  the  two  na- 
tions. Both  promised  to  pay,  but  only  the  British  did 
so.  The  French  government  did  not  even  pay  for  the 
cargoes  shipped  on  contracts  entered  into  by  their  author- 
ized agents :  and  the  distress  thus  occasioned  was  aggra- 
vated by  an  embargo  laid  on  at  Bordeaux,  under  which 
many  American  vessels  which  had  carried  provisions  to 
France  were  long  detained  in  that  harbor. 

Of  the  conduct  of  the  colonial  prize  courts  of  both  tho 


442  HISTORIC    OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  belligerents  there  were  very  great  grounds  of  complaint 
'  Every  British  governor  of  a  petty  West  India  island  was 
1793.  also  an  admiralty  judge,  a  duty  to  which  he  was  very 
seldom  competent.  These  judges  were  generally  paid 
by  fees ;  and,  in  order  to  encourage  the  privateers  and 
to  increase  their  own  business,  many  of  them  seem  to 
have  made  it  a  rule  to  condemn  every  vessel  brought 
before  them,  and,  after  condemnation,  to  put  every  ob- 
stacle in  the  way  of  appeal.  The  island  of  Bermuda 
soon  grew  particularly  infamous  in  this  respect.  Even 
the  bench  of  the  British  Court  of  Appeal  was  not  at  that 
moment  adequately  filled,  and  the  agent  who  was  pres- 
ently appointed  to  look  after  the  American  cases  found 
great  difficulty  in  bringing  them  to  a  decision.  Even 
in  case  of  release  the  losses  were  often  large,  by  reason 
of  depreciation,  costs,  and  delay.  It  was  true  that  the 
great  increase  in  the  rates  of  freight  growing  out  of  the 
war,  and  the  increased  demand  for  American  products, 
especially  provisions,  a  great  deal  more  than  made  up  for 
all  these  losses.  But  this  consideration  went  but  very  lit- 
tle way  to  stop  the  clamor  of  the  individual  losers. 

As  respected  the  British,  there  existed  another  and 
still  more  serious  ground  of  complaint.  The  command- 
ers of  British  ships  of  war  claimed  the  right  to  make  up 
any  deficiency  in  their  crews  by  pressing  into  their  service 
British-born  seamen  found  any  where  not  within  the  im- 
mediate jurisdiction  of  some  foreign  state.  Many  Brit- 
ish seamen  were  employed  on  board  of  American  mer- 
chant vessels,  which,  under  the  operation  of  this  rule, 
were  liable  to  be  stopped  at  sea  and  to  be  crippled  in 
their  crews,  sometimes  to  the  manifest  danger  of  the  ves- 
sels, by  having  their  seamen  taken  from  them.  Nor  was 
this  all,  nor  the  worst.  To  distinguish  between  British 
and  American  seamen  was  not  easy  ;  and  many  British 


INDIAN    RELATIONS  443 

captains,  eager  to  fill  up  their  crews,  were  careless  whom  CHAPTER 

they  impressed.      Native-born  Americans  were  not  un- 

frequently  dragged  by  violence  from  on  board  their  own  1793. 
vessels,  and  condemned  to  a  life  of  slavery  as  seamen  in 
British  ships  of  war.  The  lesemblance  between  British 
and  American  sailors  was  unlucky  in  more  respects  than 
one.  Citizen  Deforgues,  the  French  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  in  -apologizing  to  Morris  for  the  outrages  some- 
times committed  by  French  cruisers  upon  American 
vessels,  alleged  the  difficulty  of  distinguishing  American 
allies  from  British  enemies,  and  of  restraining  within 
just  limits  the  natural  indignation  of  the  French  patriots 
against  a  people  having,  in  language  and  habits,  so  close 
a  resemblance  to  the  free  Americans. 

While  these  new  dangers  to  the  peace  of  the  country 
were  springing  up  on  the  seaboard  and  the  ocean,  affairs 
on  the  Indian  frontier  still  continued  in  an  unsettled 
state.  The  commissioners  appointed  to  negotiate  with 
the  hostile  Northwestern  tribes,  accompanied  by  the  mis- 
sionary Heckewelder  and  by  a  deputation  of  Quakers,  as 
the  Indians  had  desired,  on  arriving  at  Fort  Niagara,  had  May  i/ 
been  kindly  received  by  Colonel  Simcoe,  commander,  dur- 
ing the  Revolutionary  war,  of  a  famous  partisan  corps  in 
the  British  army,  and  just  appointed  governor  of  the 
newly-erected  province  of  Upper  Canada.  Embarking  July  t 
at  Fort  Erie,  they  landed  presently  at  the  entrance  of  the 
River  Detroit,  where  they  were  met  by  a  deputation  from 
a  preliminary  council  of  the  confederate  Indians,  then  in 
session  at  the  Maumee  Rapids.  These  deputies  desired 
to  know  if  "  their  brothers  the  Bostonians,"  for  so  they 
designated  the  commissioners,  were  empowered  to  con- 
sent to  the  Ohio  as  a  boundary.  The  commissioners  re- 
plied that  this  was  impossible,  as  settlements  had  been 
commenced  north  of  the  Ohio,  which  could  not  be  a  ban- 


4-44  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  doned  ;   but  they  offered,  if  the  Indians  would  confirm 

VI. 

'  the  limits  established  by  the  treaties  of  Forts  M'Intosh 
1793.  and  Harmer,  a  larger  present,  in  money  and  goods,  than 
ever  had  been  given  at  any  one  time  since  the  white 
men  sat  foot  in  the  country.  They  were  authorized,  in 
fact,  to  offer  $50,000  down,  and,  in  addition,  annual 
presents  forever  to  the  amount  of$10,000a  year.  This 
answer  of  the  commissioners  having  been  reported  to  the 
Indian  council,  the  question  of  accepting  it  was  debated 
with  a  great  deal  of  vehemence.  The  result  was  ex- 
fc-g.  13.  pressed  in  a  written  document  sent  to  the  commission- 
ers, in  which  it  was  contended  that  the  treaties  of  Forts 
M'Intosh  and  Harmer,  having  been  made  by  a  few  un- 
authorized chiefs,  could  not  be  considered  as  valid.  As 
to  confirming  those  treaties  for  money,  that  was  of  no 
value  to  them,  while  the  land  would  afford  means  of  sub- 
sistence to  themselves  and  their  children.  This  same 
money  might  better  be  employed  in  persuading  the  set- 
tlers north  of  the  Ohio  to  remove.  Since  it  was  refused 
to  concede  the  Ohio  as  a  boundary,  the  negotiation  was 
declared  to  be  at  an  end. 

The  commissioners,  much  chagrined  at  this  abrupt 
termination  of  their  mission,  without  their  having  been 
admitted  into  the  presence  of  the  Indian  council,  ascribed 
the  result  to  British  influence.  Very  probably  the  in- 
clination of  the  Indians  was  seconded  by  the  advice  of 
the  Canadian  traders  and  the  British  agents.  Simcoe, 
however,  had  expressly  denied  having  advised  the  Indians 
not  to  surrender  any  of  their  lands.  He  had  also  offered 
to  act  as  mediator,  but  this  offer  the  instructions  of  the 
commissioners  would  not  allow  them  to  accept. 

Pending  this  negotiation,  Wayne's  troops  had  remained 
encamped  in  the  vicinity  of  Cincinnati,  where  they  suf- 
fered not  a  little  from  an  epidemic  influenza.  Appre- 


INDIAN    RELATIONS.  44^ 

bending  that  the  failure  of  the  negotiation  would  be  fol-  CHAPTER 

lowed  by  an  immediate  attack  upon  the  frontiers,  Wayne 

marched  with  his  army,  and,  leaving  garrisons  behind  1793 
him  at  the  intermediate  posts,  established  himself,  with  Oct- 
twenty-six  hundred  regulars,  in  a  fortified  camp  at  Green- 
ville, six  miles  in  advance  of  Fort  Jefferson.  Here  he 
was  promptly  joined  by  a  thousand  Kentucky  volunteers, 
under  General  Scott,  raised  by  dint  of  great  exertions, 
but  who  arrived  too  late  to  be  of  any  essential  aid.  These 
volunteers  were  soon  dismissed  ;  but,  to  serve  as  a  pro- 
tection to  the  frontier,  and  to  be  ready  for  ulterior  ope- 
rations in  the  spring,  the  army  remained  encamped  at 
Greenville  during  the  winter.  As  all  the  supplies  had  to 
be  carried  some  seventy  miles  through  the  woods  on  pack- 
horses,  the  support  of  the  troops  in  that  position  was  an 
expensive  affair.  A  part  of  the  legionary  cavalry,  sta- 
tioned for  the  winter  in  Kentucky,  was  placed  at  the  dis- 
posal of  Governor  Shelby,  for  the  suppression  of  any  at- 
tempts, should  such  be  made,  to  raise  men,  under  French 
commissions,  for  an  expedition  against  Louisiana — a  sub- 
ject as  to  which  information  and  orders  had  been  sent  to 
General  Wayne  and  Governor  St.  Glair,  as  well  as  to 
Governor  Shelby. 

While  a  sort  of  truce  had  prevailed  during  the  sum- 
mer with  the  Northwestern  Indians,  war,  meanwhile,  had 
been  again  kindled  on  the  southern  frontier.  Just  as 
Governor  Blount  was  on  the  point  of  negotiating  an  ar- 
rangement with  the  five  hostile  towns  of  the  Cherokees, 
a  militia  captain,  called  into  service  for  the  purpose  of 
guarding  the  settlements,  crossed  the  Tennessee  in  defi- 
ance of  orders,  and  killed  a  number  of  the  most  friendly  Juno 
Indians,  engaged  at  that  very  moment  in  an  interview 
with  Blount's  messengers.  In  consequence  of  this  and 
several  other  like  aggressions,  the  territory  south  of  the 


446  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  Ohio  had  become  involved  in  a  new  war  with  the  Cheio 

VI 

' kees,  which  Knox  characterized  as  highly  unjust,  and  to 

1793.  guard  against  the  consequences  of  which,  bodies  of  mili- 
tia  had  to  be  called  into  service  at  a  heavy  expense, 
Nearly  the  same  thing  had  happened  in  Georgia,  where 
Governor  Telfair  persisted,  in  spite  of  the  remonstrances 
of  the  War  Department,  in  leading  a  body  of  militia 
against  certain  of  the  Creeks,  alleged  by  him  to  be  un- 
friendly-— an  expedition  which  ended  in  killing  a  number 
of  warriors,  and  in  the  capture  of  several  women  and 
children  belonging  to  a  town  of  whose  friendship  there 
was  no  question.  Telfair  declared  that  the  State  of 
Georgia  would  recognize  no  treaty  with  the  Indians,  in 
the  making  of  which  her  commissioners  had  not  been 
consulted.  But  this  did  not  deter  Seagrove,  the  Indian 
agent,  from  negotiating  a  new  arrangement  with  the 
Creeks. 

While  the  authority  of  the  federal  executive  was  thus 
opposed  or  called  in  question  in  various  directions,  the 
federal  judiciary  was  exposed  to  a  similar  danger.  In 
consequence  of  the  recent  decision  by  the  Supreme  Court 
that  states  were  liable  to  be  sued  by  individuals,  citizens 
of  other  states,  a  process  of  that  sort  had  been  commenced 
against  the  State  of  Massachusetts.  As  soon  as  the  writ 
was  served,  Governor  Hancock  called  the  Legislature 
together.  They  resolved  to  take  no  notice  of  the  suit, 
at  the  same  time  agreeing  to  a  resolution  in  favor  of 
amending  the  Constitution  in  that  particular,  which  the 
governor  was  requested  to  transmit  to  the  Legislatures  of 
the  other  states.  Hancock  did  not  live  to  fulfill  this  re- 
quest. He  died  shortly  after,  when  that  duty  devolved 
on  Samuel  Adams,  then  lieutenant  governor,  and  for  the 
next  three  years  governor  of  the  state.  The  Legislature 
of  Georgia,  much  less  moderate  in  its  method  of  dealing 


THIRD    CONGRESS.  447 

with  this  matter,  assumed  a  posture  of  savage  defiance,  CHAPTEH 

too  much  in  accordance  with  other  incidents  in  her  his- _ 

tory.  An  act  was  passed  subjecting  to  death,  without  1793. 
benefit  of  clergy,  any  marshal  or  other  person  who  should 
presume  to  serve  any  process  issued  against  that  state  at 
the  suit  of  any  individual.  The  proposition  of  Massachu- 
setts for  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution  was  favorably 
responded  to,  and  ultimately  prevailed. 

A  decision  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States, 
sitting  at  Richmond,  had  declared  null  and  void,  by  vir- 
tue of  the  treaty  of  peace  with  Great  Britain,  all  the 
numerous  acts  of  Virginia  obstructing  the  collection  of 
British  debts,  even  those  which  had  discharged  the  debtor 
on  his  making  certain  payments  into  the  treasury.  This 
decision  added  to  the  excitement  against  what  were 
called  the  usurpations  of  the  federal  judiciary,  and  served 
to  brighten  up  the  anti-Federal  flame  throughout  the  en- 
tire Union. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  public  affairs,  and  such  the 
agitated  state  of  the  public  mind,  when  the  third  Con- 
gress came  together.  During  the  months  of  autumn,  in  Dec.  2 
the  midst  of  the  high  political  excitement  of  which  it 
was  the  center,  Philadelphia  had  been  visited  by  the  yel- 
low fever  in  a  very  malignant  form.  So  great  was  the 
panic  that  all  business  had  been  suspended,  the  city,  at 
one  time,  having  been  almost  deserted  by  all  those  able 
tc  leave  it.  But  with  the  first  frosts  the  disorder  disap- 
peared, and  before  the  period  appointed  for  the  meeting 
of  Congress  the  health  of  the  city  was  re-established. 
To  that  body  all  eyes  were  now  turned,  and  with  no  lit- 
tle interest. 

Langdon  of  New  Hampshire,  Cabot  and  Strong  of 
Massachusetts,  Ellsworth  of  Connecticut,  King  and  Burr 
of  New  York,  Robert  Morris  of  Pennsylvania,  Monrop 


44S  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  and  John  Taylor  of  Virginia  (the  latter  of  whom  had 
7_  succeeded,  during  the  preceding  session,  to  the  seat  re- 

1793.  signed  by  Lee),  Hawkins  of  North  Carolina,  and  Butler 
and  Izard  of  South  Carolina,  continued  to  retain  their 
seats  in  the  Senate,  either  by  holding  over  or  by  re- 
election. Among  the  new  members,  Livermore  of  New 
Hampshire,  Vining  of  Delaware,  and  Jackson  of  Geor- 
gia, had  already  distinguished  themselves  as  former 
members  of  the  House.  A  sectional  dispute  in  Penn- 
sylvania, the  western  portion  insisting  upon  its  right 
to  be  represented,  had  kept  that  state  with  only  one 
senator  during  the  whole  of  the  last  Congress.  That 
dispute  had  been  settled,  but  the  result  was  by  no  means 
agreeable  to  the  friends  of  the  administration.  Tlie 
choice  had  fallen  on  Albert  Gallatin,  who  added  to  his 
violent  opposition  to  the  excise  laws,  of  which  the  exe- 
cution still  continued  to  be  effectually  prevented  in  West- 
ern Pennsylvania,  a  very  strong  sympathy  for  France. 
An  objection,  started  in  the  Pennsylvania  Legislature, 
was  brought  by  petition  before  the  Senate,  that  Gallatin 
had  not  been  sufficiently  long  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States  to  qualify  him  to  sit  in  that  body.  A  Swiss  by 
birth,  he  had  landed  in  America,  then  just  entering  upon 
early  manhood,  in  1780,  and,  after  two  or  three  years 
passed  in  Massachusetts,  where  he  acted  for  a  while  as 
teacher  of  French  at  Harvard  College,  had  settled  in 
Western  Pennsylvania,  where  he  had  become  a  landed 
proprietor,  and  in  1785  had  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  state.  His  superior  education  and  talents  soon 
brought  him  into  political  notice,  and  he  had  been  elect- 
ed first  to  the  Constitutional  Convention,  then  to  the 
Pennsylvania  Assembly,  and  now  to  the  United  States 
Senate.  It  was  contended  by  Gallatin  and  his  friends 
that  the  nine  years  citizenship  required  of  senators  had 


PUBLICITY    OF    SENATORIAL    DEBATES.          449 
commenced   with   his   arrival  in   Massachusetts.       The  CHAPTER 

VI. 

Senate  decided,  fourteen  to  twelve — a  party  vote- — that 

his  citizenship  had  commenced  only  with  his  oath  of  al-  1793 
legiance  to  Pennsylvania,  and  he  was  in  consequence 
deprived  of  his  seat.  Another  Western  man,  James 
Ross,  was  presently  chosen  to  fill  the  vacancy.  In  the 
permanent  arrangement  of  political  parties  which  was 
now  taking  place,  Ross  and  Gallatin  took  different  sides, 
and  the  friends  of  the  administration  gained  a  vote  by 
the  exchange. 

The  discussion  as  to  Gallatin's  right  to  his  seat  was 
had  with  open  doors,  the  first  business  of  the  Senate  to 
which  any  such  publicity  was  allowed.  A  resolution 
was  also  passed,  that,  after  the  termination  of  the  pres- 
ent session,  and  so  soon  as  suitable  galleries  should  be 
provided,  those  galleries,  except  on  special  occasions  re- 
quiring secrecy,  should  remain  open  while  the  Senate 
was  engaged  in  legislative  business.  Thus  was  carried 
a  point — though  the  galleries  do  not  seem  to  have  been 
actually  provided  till  the  commencement  of  the  next 
Congress — upon  which  the  opposition  had  very  strenu- 
ously insisted.  The  argument  in  favor  of  this  measure 
was  the  due  enforcement  of  the  responsibility  to  the 
people  of  the  Senate  and  its  individual  members,  which 
secret  debates  tended  to  diminish  ;  the  prevention  of  those 
jealousies  naturally  aroused  by  secret  legislation ;  and 
the  greater  confidence  which  publicity  would  inspire. 
It  was  alleged,  on  the  other  side,  that  senatorial  respon- 
sibility was  already  sufficiently  provided  for  by  the  reg- 
ular publication  of  the  journal  with  the  yeas  and  nays ; 
and  that  to  admit  spectators  would  convert  the  Senate 
into  a  forum  for  orations,  addressed,  not  to  its  own  mem- 
bers,  but  to  the  public  at  large.  If  the  Senate)  was  to 
be  considered  a  mero,  body  for  the  transaction  of  busi- 
TV.— F  F 


450  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  ness,  there  was  a  certain  weight  in  this  objection.      The 

VI 

'  argument,  however,  failed  altogether,  looking  at  Con- 
1793.  gress  in  its  true  light,  of  a  thinking  as  well  as  acting 
political  organ  of  the  public.  So  little  interest,  however, 
was  evinced  in  the  senatorial  proceedings,  and  so 'seldom 
was  that  body  enlivened  by  elaborate  discussions,  thatT 
for  many  years  to  come,  no  reports  exist  of  Senate  de 
bates,  except  upon  two  or  three  special  occasions. 

There  appeared  in  the  House,  of  former  members* 
Ames,  Goodhue,  Sedgwick,  Thacher,  and  Ward,  of 
Massachusetts ;  Trumbnll,  Wadsworth,  and  Hillhouse, 
of  Connecticut ;  Boudinot,  Clark,  and  Dayton,  of  New 
Jersey  ;  Hartley,  Fitzsimmons,  the  two  Muhlenburgs, 
Gregg,  Scott,  and  Findley,  of  Pennsylvania ;  Mercer 
and  Murray,  of  Maryland  ;  Madison,  Richard  Bland  Lee, 
Page,  Moore,  Parker,  and  Giles,  of  Virginia  ;  Macon,  of 
North  Carolina  ;  Smith,  of  South  Carolina ;  Baldwin, 
of  Georgia.  But  as  the  House  had  been  largely  in- 
creased by  the  new  apportionment,  a  large  majority  were 
new  members.  Among  them  were  Samuel  Dexter,  Hen- 
ry Dearborn,  and  William  Lyman  from  Massachusetts, 
the  two  latter  voting  with  the  opposition ;  Uriah  Tracy, 
of  Connecticut ;  John  Smilie  and  John  Wilkes  Kitte^ 
ra,  of  Pennsylvania  ;  Samuel  Smith,  of  Maryland,  a  col- 
onel in  the  Revolutionary  army,  distinguished  in  the  de- 
fense of  Mud  Island,  in  the  Delaware,  now  an  enterpris- 
ing merchant  and  influential  citizen  of  Baltimore,  des 
tined  to  a  long  political  life ;  John  Nicholas,  of  Vir 
ginia  ;  Andrew  Pickens,  of  South  Carolina,  an  activ 
partisan  officer  of  militia  during  the  Revolution.  New 
York  had  an  entirely  new  delegation,  none  of  whom,  how- 
ever, were  greatly  distinguished  by  talents  or  influence 
The  stanch  friends  of  the  administration  voted  for  Sedg- 
wick as  speaker  ;  the  opposition  of  all  sorts,-  anti-Feder- 


PRESIDENT'S   SPEECH.  45  ^ 

alists,  Republicans,  and  Democrats,  united  on  Frederic  CHAPTEB 
A..  Muhlenburg,  who  was  chosen  by  a  majority  of  ten  ______ 

votes.  1793 

The  president's  speech,  as  to  the  contents  of  which  Dec.  3. 
there  had  been  a  good  deal  of  preliminary  discussion  in 
the  cabinet,  designated  the  proclamation  of  neutrality  as 
a  "declaration  of  the  existing  legal  state  of  things,"  in- 
tended to  admonish  the  citizens  of  the  consequences  of  a 
contraband  trade  or  of  hostile  acts  to  any  of  the  parties 
at  war :  and  by  declaring  a  disposition  for  peace,  to  quiet 
any  suspicions  on  the  part  of  the  belligerents,  and  to  ob- 
tain an  easier  admission  to  the  immunities  belonging  to  a 
neutral  position.  The  rules  which  had  been  adopted  for 
enforcing  the  neutrality  of  the  United  States  were  sub- 
mitted to  Congress,  and  legislation  in  furtherance  of  that- 
end  was  strongly  urged. 

But  while  fulfilling  all  duties  toward  other  nations,  it 
was  necessary,  the  president  thought,  to  place  ourselves 
in  a  condition  of  complete  defense,  so  as  to  be  able  to 
exact  from  them  a  fulfillment  of  their  duties  toward  us. 
«  There  is  a  rank  due  to  the  United  States  among  na- 
tions, which  will  be  withheld,  if  not  absolutely  lost,  by 
a  reputation  of  weakness.  If  we  desire  to  avoid  insult, 
we  must  be  able  to  repel  it ;  if  we  desire  peace,  one  of 
the  most  powerful  instruments  of  our  rising  prosperity, 
it  must  be  known  that  we  'are  at  all  times  ready  for 
war."  After  alluding  to  the  extremely  insufficient  or- 
ganization of  the  militia  under  the  existing  laws,  the 
question  was  suggested,  "Whether  a  material  feature  in 
an  improvement  of  it  ought  not  to  be  to  afford  an  oppor- 
tunity for  the  study  of  those  branches  of  the  military  art 
which  can  scarcely  ever  be  obtained  by  practice  alone?" 
The  president  had  wished  to  recommend  the  fortification 
of  the  harbors  and  the  establishment  of  a  mili'iary  school; 


452  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  but  the  message  was  generalized  as  above,  in  order  tc 
'      meet  the  cavils  of  Jefferson,  who  thought  the  military 

1793.  school  unconstitutional,  and  the  fortifications  inexpedient. 
After  a  summary  of  the  state  of  Indian  affairs,  the 
necessity  was  urged,  so  soon  as  the  present  war  should 
be  terminated,  of  rendering  tranquillity  permanent  by 
creating  ties  of  interest,  especially  by  the  regular  suppl\ 
of  the  Indians  with  goods  through  a  fair  and  just  traffic. 

E'ec,  5  Two  days  after  the  delivery  of  this  speech,  a  written 
message  was  sent  to  both  houses  covering  the  correspond 
ence  with  Genet,  including  the  complaints  against  him, 
and  the  application  for  his  recall  ;  also  Jefferson's  for- 
mer correspondence  with  the  British  minister  on  the  non- 
fulfillment of  the  treaty  of  peace,  and  the  mutual  claims 
of  the  two  nations  under  it ;  as  well  as  the  recent  cor- 
respondence, both  at  Philadelphia  and  London,  on  the 
subject  of  the  British  order  for  the  stoppage  of  vessels 
laden  with  provisions.  The  message,  as  originally  draft- 
ed by  Jefferson,  contained  a  contrast  between  the  conduct 
of  France  and  England,  especially  in  relation  to  com- 
mercial facilities,  highly  favorable  to  the  former.  This 
had  been  objected  to  by  Hamilton,  who  considered  the 
disposition  of  the  people  toward  France  a  serious  calam- 
ity, and  that  the  executive  ought  not,  by  echoing  her 
praises,  to  nourish  that  disposition  in  the  people.  In 
his  opinion,  the  balance  of  commercial  favors  was  de- 
cidedly with  the  British ;  the  commercial  offers  made  by 
France  were  the  offspring  of  the  moment,  growing  ou* 
of  circumstances  that  could  not  last.  To  evade  Ham- 
ilton's objections,  Jefferson  consented  to  some  modifica- 
tions of  the  message.  Hamilton  then  insisted  that  the 
papers  relating  to  the  non-execution  of  the  treaty  of 
peace  and  to  the  stopping  of  the  corn  ships  ought  not  tc 
be  communicated,  unless  in  a  secret  message,  as  the  mat* 


JEFFERSON'S   DIPLOMATIC    C  OltRESPONDEN  CE. 
ters  therein  discussed  were  still  unsettled,  and  the  tend-  CHAPTEB 

VI. 

ency  of  the  communication  was  to  inflame  the  public — 

mind  against  Great  Britain.  Jefferson  was  a  good  deal  1793 
alarmed  at  this  threatened  suppression  of  his  diplomatic 
labors ;  but  Washington  decided  that  all  the  papers  should 
be  communicated  without  any  restriction  of  secrecy,  even 
those  respecting  the  corn  ships,  which  all  the  cabinet,  ex- 
cept Jefferson,  had  advised  to  withhold. 

The  publication  of  these  documents  enabled  Jefferson 
to  retire  from  office,  which  he  did  at  the  close  of  the 
year,  with  a  good  deal  of  eclat.  In  the  correspondence 
with  Genet,  he  appeared  as  the  vigorous  defender  of  the 
administration  against  the  insolence  of  that  embassador. 
The  necessity  of  submitting  these  documents  to  Hamil- 
ton's eye  had  probably  infused  more  spirit  into  them  than 
they  might  otherwise  have  contained,  or  than  suited  pre- 
cisely with  the  opinions  which  Jefferson  had  supported 
in  the  cabinet.  At  the  same  time,  great  care  had  been 
taken  to  avoid  saying  any  thing  that  might  give  the  least 
offense  to  those  partisans  of  France  able  to  distinguish 
between  the  French  republic  and  the  French  minister. 

The  correspondence  with  Hammond  on  the  subject 
of  the  debts  due  to  the  British  merchants  was  of  a  char- 
acter to  find  great  favor  at  the  South,  especially  among 
the  debtors.  Not  content  with  setting  up  that  the  Brit- 
ish had  themselves  been  guilty  of  the  first  breaches  of 
the  treaty,  by  carrying  away  negroes,  the  property  of 
American  citizens,  and  by  refusing  to  deliver  up  the 
Western  posts,  Jefferson  was  bold  enough  to  maintain, 
on  the  strength  of  certain  certificates  from  lawyers  and 
others,  swift  witnesses  on  behalf  of  the  honor  of  their  re- 
spective states,  that  no  obstructions  did,  in  fact,  exist  to 
the  collection  of  British  debts,  that  British  merchants  * 
were  exposed  to  no  more  legal  obstacles  than  any  body 


454  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  else,  and  that  their  failure  to  recover  their  debts  by  course 
'  of  law  must  be  ascribed  either  to  the  insolvency  of  the 
1.79C.  debtors,  or  to  the  preference  of  the  creditors  to  look  else- 
where for  payment.  This  document  had  remained  un- 
answered for  two  years,  though  the  propriety  of  a  re- 
joinder had  once  or  twice  been  hinted  to  Hammond,  who 
had  sent  it  home  for  instructions.  Jefferson  seemed  to 
tnmk  it  unanswerable.  The  British  ministry  thought, 
perhaps,  that  it  exhibited  too  little  candor  to  invite  to  a 
continuation  of  the  correspondence  ;  or  they  might  have 
been  waiting  the  operation  of  a  suggestion  contained  in 
it,  that,  if  the  alleged  obstacles  did  exist,  they  would  be 
of  no  avail  in  the  federal  courts. 

Dec  i6.  Still  another  document  from  the  pen  of  Jefferson  was 
given  to  Congress  and  the  public  just  at  the  moment  of 
his  resignation — a  report  prepared  in  obedience  to  an  old 
order  of  the  House  of  Representatives  on  the  privileges 
and  restrictions  of  the  commerce  of  the  United  States 
with  foreign  countries — strongly  tending  to  promote  the 
opinion,  which  at  that  moment  hardly  needed  any  stim- 
ulus, that  the  United  States  were  hardly  dealt  with  by 
Great  Britain.  It  professed  to  represent  things  as  they 
stood  previous  to  the  breaking  out  of  the  late  war  in  Eu- 
rope, and  the  great  object  of  it  was  to  show,  contrary  to 
the  prevailing  opinion  among  merchants,  that  the  regula- 
tions of  France,  even  prior  to  her  recent  relaxations,  were 
much  more  favorable  to  American  commerce  than  those 
of  England.  By  way  of  compelling  Great  Britain  to  put 
us  on  a  more  equal  footing,  since  she  declined  to  do  so  by 
treaty  arrangements,  it  was  proposed  to  adopt,  as  against 
her,  a  system  of  discriminating  duties — the  same  policy, 
in  fact,  which  Madison  had  insisted  upon  so  strenuously 
in  the  first  Congress,  but  which  Jefferson  now  proposed 
in  a  more  systematic  and  extended  form. 


JEFFERSON'S    RETIREMENT.  455 

In  quitting  the  cabinet,  Jefferson  had  the  satisfaction  CHAPTLU 

to  carry  with  him  Washington's  testimonial  of  continued  . 

belief  in  his  integrity,  almost  extorted  by  a  somewhat  1793. 
bold  assertion,  in  Jefferson's  leave-taking  letter,  of  a 
**  thorough  disdain  of  all  means  which  were  not  as  open 
and  honorable  as  their  object  was  pure,"  He  retired  to 
his  patrimonial  estate  of  Monticello,  as  he  said,  to  with- 
draw from  politics  after  twenty-four  years  of  public  serv- 
ice, and  to  devote  himself  to  the  pleasures  of  rural  life ; 
but  in  fact,  like  the  spider,  drawn  into  a  corner,  yet  still 
toonsitively  feeling  every  thread  of  his  wide-extended  net, 
to  play,  no  less  assiduously  at  Monticello  than  he  had 
done  at  Philadelphia,  the  part  of  a  watchful,  zealous,  un- 
tiring party  leader.  According  to  Jefferson's  theory  of 
politics,  to  aspire  to  office  was  a  breach  of  that  equality 
without  which  liberty  could  not  exist.  What  right  had 
any  man  to  desire  to  be  elevated  over  the  heads  of  his 
countrymen  ?  Ambition  was  the  political  sin  which  he 
charged  upon  Adams  and  upon  Hamilton.  Could  the 
idea  be  tolerated  that  the  same  evil  disposition  lurked 
even  in  his  pure  soul  ?  With  most  men,  especially  those 
of  an  enthusiastic  turn  of  mind,  it  is  still  easier  to  de- 
ceive themselves  than  to  deceive  others ;  and  while.,  in 
his  nominal  retirement,  he  was  exercising  all  the  prerog- 
atives of  the  acknowledged  head  of  a  party,  issuing  his 
mandates  in  every  direction,  couched,  indeed,  under  the 
gentler  form  of  suggestions  and  advice,  Jefferson  seems 
to  have  actually  persuaded  himself  of  what  he  so  con- 
stantly repeated  to  others,  that  he  was  altogether  en- 
grossed with  his  lucerne,  potatoes,  and  tobacco,  and  no 
more  interested  in  politics  than  any  other  planter.  The 
great  instrument  of  influence  which  he  employed  was  a 
constant  correspondence  with  his  adherents  in  different 
parts  of  the  country,  every  letter  beginning  with  protes- 


456  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  tations  of  his  disgust  at  politics  and  total  forgetfuJness  oi 

public  affairs,  but  as  constantly  ending  in  hints,  sugges« 

1793  tions,  and  recommendations  as  to  the  best  method  of  car- 
rying on  the  campaign.  He  had  retired  from  Philadel- 
phia with  feelings  excited  to  the  highest  degree  against 
the  political  opponents  whom  he  left  behind.  By  hig 
patronage  of  Freneau's  Gazette,  universally  regarded  as 
his  organ,  and  which  had  scattered  abroad,  with  such 
reckless  profusion,  charges  of  political  and  pecuniary  cor- 
ruption and  anti-republican  tendencies,  he  had  made  him- 
self an  object  of  peculiar  hatred  to  that  very  circle  in 
which  his  position,  no  less  than  his  refined  tastes  and 
fondness  for  society,  had  called  upon  him  to  move.  They 
had  looked  upon  him  as  a  snake  in  the  grass  ;  and  that 
love  of  approbation,  so  marked  a  feature  of  his  character, 
had  made  him  conscious  of  their  hatred,  as  he  himself 
energetically  expressed  it,  even  in  those  moments  of  con- 
viviality when  the  heart  wishes  most  to  open  itself  to  the 
offices  of  friendship  and  confidence.  Every  cabinet  con- 
sultation had  been  a  torment,  obliged  as  he  had  been  "  to 
descend  daily  into  the  arena  like  a  gladiator,  to  suffer 
martyrdom  in  every  conflict."  In  his  attempts  to  destroy 
Washington's  confidence  in  Hamilton  he  had  been  mosi 
signally  defeated ;  and,  considering  the  multiplied  embar- 
rassments and  mortifications  to  which  he  had  exposed 
himself,  in  his  double  character  of  cabinet  minister  and 
head  of  the  opposition,  there  is  no  need  to  wonder  at  the 
exceedingly  bitter  and  aggravated  feelings  with  which 
he  always  looked  back  to  that  part  of  his  career.  Fre- 
neau's Gazette  had  expired  before  his  resignation.  It 
stopped,  like  most  of  the  other  Philadelphia  papers,  dur- 
ing the  height  of  the  yellow  fever,  and,  though  promises 
were  made  of  its  reappearance,  it  never  revived  again. 
But  in  Bache's  Advertiser,  soon  known  as  the  Aurora, 


RELATIONS  WITH  ALGIERS.        457 

the  party  continued  to  find  an  organ  not  less  uncompro-  CHAPTER 
raising  and  still  more  virulent.  

With  the  retirement  of  Jefferson,  Washington  seems  1793 
to  have  abandoned  the  plausible  but  not  very  practica- 
ble idea  of  a  balance  of  parties  in  the  cabinet.  He  ap- 
pointed Randolph  to  be  Secretary  of  State,  of  whom  Jef- 
ferson complained,  in  his  private  letters  to  Madison,  that 
he  gave  his  principles  to  one  side  and  his  practice  to  the 
other — the  shells  to  him  and  the  oyster  to  Hamilton. 
The  office  of  Attorney  General,  vacated  by  Randolph, 
was  given  to  William  Bradford,  of  Pennsylvania,  a  ris- 
ing lawyer,  whose  premature  death  soon  disappointed  the 
hopes  that  had  been  formed  of  his  ultimate  eminence. 

Among  other  communications  made  to  Congress  was 
one  respecting  new  dangers  to  commerce  from  the  Al- 
gerine  cruisers.  No  treaty  with  that  piratical  commu- 
nity had  as  yet  been  formed.  Prior  to  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution,  two  American  vessels  had  fallen  into 
their  hands,  and  the  crews,  to  the  number  of  twenty-one 
persons,  had  been  held,  as  their  custom  was,  for  ransom. 
The  dey  demanded  $60,000  ;  but  as  this  rate  of  redemp- 
tion might  serve  as  precedent  for  the  future,  the  Amer- 
ican government  had  been  unwilling  to  pay  it.  Attempts 
had  been  made  to  procure  the  release  of  the  captives 
through  the  agency  of  a  French  religious  order  devoted 
to  that  humane  service  ;  but  this  scheme  had  been  de- 
feated by  the  dissolution  of  the  monastic  orders  conse- 
quent upon  the  French  Revolution. 

The  Senate  having  been  consulted  on  the  subject,  had  1792 
agreed  to  a  payment  to  the  extent  of  $40,000  for  the   May  8- 
thirteen  surviving  captives.      They  had  agreed,  ilso,  to 
the  purchase  of  a  peace  of  the  Algerines,  could  it  be  pro- 
cured for  $25,000  down,  and  the  like  sum  in  annual 
payment — the  inducement  being  the  trade  of  the  Medi' 


458  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTEB  terranean,  a  profitable  branch  of  traffic  before  the  Rev. 
Dlution,  but  from  which  American  vessels  were  now  ex 

1793  eluded  through  fear  of  these  Algerine  pirates. 

John  Paul  Jones,  the  famous  naval  adventurer,  then 
at  Paris,  and  in  a  state  of  destitution,  had  been  appoint- 
ed consul  to  Algiers,  to  negotiate  a  treaty ;  but  he  died 
before  setting  out  on  his  mission.  Barclay,  the  late 
x  consul  at  Paris,  who  had  negotiated  the  treaty  with 
Morocco,  was  then  appointed ;  but  he  also  died ;  when 
the  business  was  committed  to  Humphreys,  the  minister 
to  Portugal.  In  consequence  of  difficulties  between  the 
Portuguese  and  the  Algerines,  a  blockade  of  the  Straits 
of  Gibraltar  had  been  maintained  of  late  by  a  Portuguese 
fleet,  and  the  Algerine  cruisers  had  thus  been  kept  within 
the  Mediterranean.  But  before  Humphreys  had  time  to 
act  under  his  commission,  a  peace  had  been  made  be- 
tween Portugal  and  Algiers;  and,  on  the  withdrawal  oi 
the  blockading  fleet,  eight  Algerine  cruisers  had  issued 
into  the  Atlantic,  to  the  great  danger  of  American  ves- 
sels. 

This  state  of  affairs,  communicated  to  the  House  in  a 
Dec.  {3.  confidential  message,  was  considered  with  closed  doors, 
not  without  some  opposition  from  Nicholas  and  others, 
who  denied  that  the  House  ought  to  have  any  secrets 
The  great  questions  were  whether  a  squadron  should  be 
fitted  out  and  sent  to  the  Mediterranean,  to  keep  the 
Algerines,  with  their  brother  pirates  of  Tunis  and  Trip- 
oli, iii  awe,  or  whether  a  peace  should  be  purchased,  and, 
if  so,  how  much  money  the  House  would  appropriate  for 
that  purpose.  It  was  finally  agreed  to  adopt  both  measures 

1794  — ^°  v°^e  money  to  purchase  a  treaty,  and  also  to  pro- 
Jan.  2    vide  a  naval  force.     A  committee  appointed  to  report  the 

amount   of   force   required,   by  an  amendment,   carried 
forty-six  to  forty-four,  was  authorized  to  report,  also,  the 


MADISON'S   RESOLUTIONS. 

ways  and  means  for  its  support.      Hitherto  all  questions  CHAPTFH 

of  that  sort  had  been  referred  to  the  Secretary  of  the__ 

Treasury.  This  was  the  first  committee  of  ways  and  179J 
means  ever  appointed ;  and  it  indicated,  like  the  result 
of  the  election  of  speaker,  that  the  opposition  had  a  ma- 
jority in  the  House.  The  defense  of  the  ports  and  har- 
bors of  the  United  States  was  soon  afterward  referred  to 
the  same  committee. 

No  sooner  had  the  Algerine  business  been  disposed  of, 
than  Madison,  on  behalf  of  the  opposition,  formally  opened 
the  political  campaign.  The  project  of  upsetting  or  mod- 
ifying the  funding  system  appears  to  have  been  quite 
dropped,  and  the  national  antipathy  to  Great  Britain  to 
have  been  substituted  as  the  basis  of  party  rally.  In- 
deed, in  the  course  of  the  Algerine  debate,  not  a  little 
excitement  had  prevailed  against  Great  Britain,  on  the 
suggestion  that  she  had  brought  about  peace  between 
Algiers  and  Portugal  for  the  very  purpose  of  letting  loose 
the  Algerine  cruisers  against  American  commerce.  Mad- 
ison, in  a  formal  speech,  introduced  a  series  of  resolu-  Jan.  3 
tions,  based  on  Jefferson's  commercial  report,  proposing, 
in  addition  to  discriminating  tonnage  duties  on  the  ves- 
sels of  nations  not  in  alliance  with  us,  special  duties  also 
on  manufactures  of  leather,  metals,  cotton,  wool,  linen, 
and  silk,  the  products  of  such  nations ;  and,  with  refer- 
ence to  the  West  India  trade,  additional  duties  on  all 
importations  by  foreign  vessels  from  ports  to  which  Amer- 
ican vessels  were  not  admitted. 

At  the  urgent  request  of  the  commercial  representa- 
tives, the  consideration  of  these  resolutions  was  post- 
poned for  ten  days,  when  Smith,  of  South  Carolina,  led  Jan  13 
off  against  them  in  Committee  of  the  Whole.  He  pro- 
posed to  discuss  the  question  in  a  purely  commercial 
point  of  view,  without  reference  to  the  alleged  miscon- 


460  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  duct  of  Great  Britain,  as  it  respected  the  Algerines,  the 
'  Indians,  or  the  Western  posts.  This  speech,  which  was 
1794.  afterward  published  in  a  pamphlet  form,  contained  a  very 
searching  criticism  of  the  statements  and  reasoning  of 
Jefferson's  report,  going  to  show  that,  whether  contrast- 
ed with  the  commercial  policy  pursued  by  England  to- 
ward other  nations,  or  with  the  policy  adopted  by  other 
nations,  particularly  France,  toward  the  United  States, 
there  was  nothing  in  the  existing  state  of  commercial  re- 
lations with  Great  Britain  to  afford  any  special  ground 
of  complaint. 

It  had  been  represented  in  Jefferson's  report,  as  a  proof 
of  the  disadvantageous  character  of  our  commerce  with 
Great  Britain,  that  while  not  less  than  three  fourths  of 
our  entire  imports  came  from  that  country,  she  took  in 
return  less  than  half  of  our  exports,  and  a  great  part  of 
these  not  for  her  own  consumption,  but  for  re-exportation 
to  the  Continent,  a  trade  which  we  might  carry  on  more 
beneficially  for  ourselves.  To  this  Smith  replied  that 
the  purchase  from  Great  Britain  of  so  large  a  portion  of 
our  imports  was  evidence  in  itself  that  we  could  buy  of 
her  more  advantageously  than  elsewhere.  The  secret 
was,  that  she  alone  was  able  and  willing  to  give  the  credit 
which  the  circumstances  of  the  United  States  required. 
As  to  consumption  of  our  products,  deducting  all  her  re- 
exports, she  was  still  a  better  customer  than  France. 
Nor  was  her  trade  of  re-exportation  necessarily  a  disad- 
vantage to  us.  In  the  uncertainty  of  foreign  markets, 
it  was  a  great  advantage  to  have  a  customer  always 
ready  to  take  what  we  had,  and  to  hold  it  till  vent  could 
be  found  at  a  remunerating  price. 

"  I  am  at  no  loss,"  wrote  Jefferson  to  Madison,  "  to 
ascribe  Smith's  speech  to  its  true  father.  Every  tittle 
of  it  is  Hamilton's,  except  the  introduction.  There  is 


MADISON'S    RESOLUTIONS— LEBATE.  4(5] 

scarcely  any  thing  in  it  which  I  have  not  heard  from  CHAPTER 
him  in  our  various  private  though  official  discussions." 

Smith  was  followed  by  Madison  in  a  very  labored  re-  1794. 
ply,  which  contained,  however,  little  more  than  a  repe-  Jan<  14 
tition  of  his  arguments  urged  in  the  first  Congress,  and 
stated  in  a  former  chapter.  He  insisted  now,  as  then, 
that  the  adoption  of  the  policy  which  he  recommended 
would  not  lead  to  retaliation  on  the  part  of-  Great  Brit- 
ain. The  indulgences  which  she  allowed  to  our  trade 
were  entirely  founded  on  views  of  her  own  interest. 
Her  object  was  to  find  the  largest  vent  for  her  manufac- 
tures; and,  however  we  might  impede  their  introduction, 
she  was  not  likely  to  do  any  thing  to  add  to  that  imped- 
iment. The  struggle  might  call  for  some  self-denial, 
but  the  advantages  were  all  on  our  side.  We  imported 
luxuries ;  our  exports  consisted  of  necessaries,  without 
which  the  English  manufactures  could  not  be  carried  on. 
The  contest  would  be  certain  to  end  in  a  triumph  on  our 
part,  by  compelling  England  to  agree  to  an  entire  reci- 
procity. 

While  disclaiming  any  intention  to  make  this  debate 
any  thing  but  a  mere  commercial  discussion,  Madison  took 
care,  however,  to  stimulate  the  feeling  against  Great 
Britain  by  an  artful  recapitulation  of  all  the  existing 
grounds  of  complaint.  "Ill  will  and  jealousy  were,  and 
always  had  been,  the  predominant  features  in  the  con- 
duct of  Great  Britain  toward  America.  She  had  been 
encouraged  by  the  idea  of  impotence  in  our  government 
and  want  of  union ;  and  the  fate  of  the  present  resolu- 
tions would  show  whether  we  were  in  fact  so  feeble,  or 
the  interests  of  the  states  so  discordant  as  she  supposed. 
To  reject  the  resolutions  would  be  to  rivet  the  fetters  of 
American  commerce." 

Forest  of  Maryland  could  not  agret  that  in  the  con-  Jan.  15 


HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 
CHAPTER  test  of  commercial  regulations  we  should  have  the  ad- 

VI. 

vantage.  The  trade  of  Great  Britain  to  America  con- 
1794.  stituted  a  sixth  of  her  entire  commerce  ;  our  trade  to 
Great  Britain  was  more  than  one  half  of  ours.  If  a 
breach  took  place,  who  would  suffer  most,  she  by  the  in- 
terruption of  a  sixth  of  her  trade,  with  the  means  of  get- 
ting most  of  the  articles  supplied  by  us  on  as  good  terms 
from  other  nations,  with  great  internal  sources  of  rev- 
enue and  a  people  used  to  taxes,  or  we,  with  an  inter- 
ruption of  half  our  trade,  with  few  internal  resources  and 
citizens  little  accustomed  to  be  taxed  ?  The  fourth  of 
our  revenue  was  supplied  by  imposts  on  British  goods. 
How  was  that  to  be  made  up?  The  recollection  of  1774 
and  1775  might  serve  to  show  what  little  effect  we  could 
produce  on  Great  Britain  by  the  non-consumption  of  her 
manufactures.  "I  am  not  a  stock-holder;  I  am  not  a 
bank-holder!"  exclaimed  Forest;  "  I  am  too  poor  to  be 
either,  and  therefore  can  have  no  separate  interest  in 
view;  and  where  I  am  known  I  shall  not  be  charged  with 
partiality  to  Great  Britain.  But  I  hope  I  am  free  from 
such  unwarrantable  prejudice  as  to  lead  me  into  meas- 
ures to  the  injury  of  my  country." 

The  same  argument,  with  additional  points  and  illus- 
trations, was  pressed  with  great  force  by  Smith  of  Mary- 
land, afterward  for  many  years  a  very  strenuous  advo- 
cate of  the  party  of  Jefferson  and  Madison,  but  who  held 
during  the  present  Congress  a  somewhat  equivocal  posi- 
tion. Spain,  Portugal,  Denmark,  Russia,  and  the  Hanse 
Towns  were  in  the  same  predicament  with  Great  Britain. 
They  had  no  treaties  with  us,  yet  they  were  excellent 
customers,  and  was  their  trade  to  be  burdened  with  extra 
duties  for  the  benefit  of  France,  who  did  not  scruple  to 
violate  the  most  beneficial  article  in  her  treaty  with  us, 
the  provision  that  free  ships  should  make  free  goods? 


MADISON'S    RESOLUTIONS— DEBATE.  4(33 

He  trusted  no  one  would  tax  him  with  prejudice  in  favor  CIIAPTEE 

J                                vi. 
of  Great  Britain.      He   had  suffered  severely  by  recent 

British   depredations.       He    had  fought   against   Great  1794. 
Britain,  and,  should  duty  call  him,  would  do  so  again. 
But  the  question  now  was,  not  how  we  might  most  in- 
jure Great  Britain,  but  how  we  might  best  protect  our- 
selves. 

Findley  insisted  that  the  credit  granted  by  British 
merchants  was  no  benefit,  but  an  injury,  leading  to  a 
system  of  indebtedness  running  through  all  society,  and 
very  dangerous  from  the  British  influence  thus  intro- 
duced. Those  merchants  trading  on  their  own  capital 
were  in  favor  of  the  resolutions  ;  the  only  opposers  were 
those  trading  on  British  capital. 

Nicholas  insisted  that  the  circumstances  of  America 
since  its  settlement  had  placed  her  trade  entirely  in  the 
hands  of  Great  Britain,  leaving  the  consumer  no  oppor- 
tunity of  choice.  These  artificial  causes  must  be  coun- 
teracted by  artificial  means.  He  was  for  building  up  a 
French  market  for  American  products,  even  at  the  risk 
of  some  immediate  loss.  By  giving  to  French  manu- 
factures a  preference  in  our  markets,  we  might  draw  off 
the  French  agriculturists  into  workshops,  and  the  con- 
sequent diminution  of  French  agricultural  produce  would 
open  a  market  for  ours.  As  to  British  credits,  it  was  a 
great  object  to  break  them  off.  The  habit  of  running 
in  debt  had  reached  an  intolerable  pitch  throughout  the 
South.  It  had  been  hoped,  in  vain,  that  some  check 
would  be  found  in  the-  provisions  of  the  Federal  Consti- 
tution guarding  the  sanctity  of  contracts  Nothing  could 
work  a  cure  except  a  radical  change  of  commercial  sys- 
tem— a  cutting  off  the  trade  with  Great  Britain  like 
that  to  which  these  resolutions  tended. 

Goodhue  remarked  that,  if  there  was  no  friendship  in 


464          HISTORY  ur  THE  UJNTTED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  trade,  as  some  of  the  speakers  on  the  other  side  had  sug* 
_  gested,  there  ought  also  to  be  no  hatred  in  trade.     Trade 

1794  ought  not  to  be  made  an  instrument  for  the  gratification 
of  political  antipathies.  As,  in  the  present  circumstances 
of  Europe,  Great  Britain  alone  could  supply  the  manu- 
factures we  needed,  to  increase  the  duties  upon  them 
would  not  affect  her,  but  us,  by  raising  the  price  to  the 
consumers. 

Clark  scouted  this  appeal  to  mercantile  considerations 
Merchants  might  calculate  in  their  counting-houses,  a 
Legislature  ought  to  act  on  political  grounds.  We  had 
many  wrongs  to  complain  of.  The  English  had  violated 
the  treaty  of  peace,  first,  by  carrying  off  negroes,  and 
then  by  retaining  the  Western  posts.  They  had  set  the 
savages  on  our  backs,  and  just  now  let  the  Algerines 
loose  upon  us.  Shall  we  sit  still  and  bear  all  this  ?  A 
non-importation  agreement,  as  he  remembered,  had  made 
Great  Britain  repeal  the  Stamp  Act.  During  that  agree* 
ment  we  did  not  perish  with  cold.  We  found  means  to 
clothe  ourselves  then,  and  we  should  do  so  now.  We 
carried  our  point  then,  and  we  should  now  be  much  more 
powerful  at  the  same  weapons.  Many  British  manu- 
facturers were  already  starving  for  want  of  employment. 
By  adopting  the  policy  proposed,  we  should  add  greatly 
to  their  distress,  should  soon  bring  the  government  to 
their  senses,  and  make  them  glad  to  enter  into  a  com- 
mercial treaty. 

Smith  remarked  that  perhaps  he  was  one  of  those 
whom  it  was  intended  to  stigmatize  as  merchants  trading 
on  British  capital,  and  therefore  opposed  to  these  resolu- 
tions. Findley  disclaimed  any  such  allusion ;  upon 
which  Smith  added  that,  although  not  now  trading  on 
British  capital,  that  charge  might  once  have  been  alleged 
against  him  with  truth.  He  had  sacrificed  a  fortune  in 


MADISON'S    RESOLUTIONS— DEBATE.  465 

the  service  of  his  country  while  struggling  for  independ-  CHAPTER 
ence.  When  that  boon  was  obtained,  he  had  nothing  ' 
left  but  his  industry  and  commercial  enterprise.  These,  1794. 
assisted  by  that  British  credit  so  much  deprecated,  had 
enabled  him  to  acquire  another  fortune,  and  to  be  in  a 
way  again  to  serve  his  country.  He  was  not  surprised 
that  some  merchants  advocated  the  resolutions.  Should 
our  credit  in  England  be  seriously  affected,  trade  could 
only  be  carried  on  by  those  possessed  of  great  capitals. 
Young  men  with  small  means  would  no  longer  be  able 
to  embark  in  commerce :  a  complete  commercial  aristoc- 
racy would  be  established,  and  commercial  profits  would 
be  doubled.  It  was  no  hardship  to  the  young  trader  to 
make  use  of  British  capital  at  an  interest  of  five  per 
cent.,  when  he  could  borrow  the  money  nowhere  else,  and 
must  remain  idle  without  it. 

Lee  made  an  elaborate  apology  for  presuming  to  differ  Jan.  20. 
on  the  subject  of  these  resolutions  from  his  colleague 
(Madison),  to  whose  agency  in  the  formation  and  adop- 
tion of  the  Federal  Constitution  he  paid  some  very  high 
compliments.  The  idea  that,  unless  the  policy  of  these 
resolutions  was  adopted,  Great  Britain  would  obtain  a 
predominating  influence  in  our  politics,  seemed  to  him 
quite  overstrained.  At  the  commencement  of  our  strug- 
gle with  Great  Britain,  she  had  all  the  commercial  influ- 
ence over  us  which  the  monopoly  of  our  trade  could  give. 
That  influence  neither  damped  our  courage  nor  checked 
our  unanimity.  Why  suppose  less  virtue  in  our  citizens, 
now  that  we  were  free  under  a  government  of  our  own, 
than  then,  when  we  were  subject  to  a  colonial  dependence? 

These  resolutions  ought  to  pass,  it  had  been  said,  as 
an  expression  of  our  gratitude  for  services  formerly  ren- 
dered to  us  by  the  French.  Generosity  and  gratitude 

were  attributes  belonging  more  to  heaven  than  to  earth, 
IV.— G  G 


466  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  rarely  seen  among  individual  men,  and  still  more  rarely 
'  ^  among  nations.    It  had  been  acknowledged  in  the  French 

1794.  Convention  that  the  assistance  rendered  to  us  had  been 
not  so  much  for  our  sakes  as  to  weaken  a  dangerous  and 
powerful  rival.  If  there  existed  on  the  part  of  France  a 
friendly  disposition  toward  us — and,  as  the  French  said 
so,  he  was  not  disposed  to  deny  it — it  might  be  taken 
advantage  of,  without  the  necessity  of  any  legislative  ac- 
tion, by  the  negotiation  of  a  new  treaty  of  commerce; 
especially  as  that  now  in  existence  was  violated  by  the 
French  government  —  under  imperious  circumstances, 
he  was  ready  to  admit,  sufficient,  in  the  eyes  of  every 
American,  to  serve  as  an  excuse.  The  alleged  similar- 
ity of  principles  and  institutions  between  the  French  re- 
public and  ourselves,  so  much  relied  upon  by  some  gen- 
tlemen, he  did  not  himself  perceive.  The  French  repub- 
lic was  one  and  indivisible  ;  ours  consisted  of  sovereign 
states,  having  extensive  and  important  local  jurisdictions, 
and  a  diversity  of  laws  and  interests.  Federalism  wag 
treason  in  France  •  consolidation  was  treason  here.  The 
French  executive  was  plural,  and  their  Legislature  a 
single  body — arrangements  counter  to  the  practice  oi 
almost  all  the  states,  and  to  the  provisions  of  the  Federal 
Constitution.  Was  every  part  of  the  United  States  in 
a  condition  to  extend  the  idea  of  equality  to  the  same 
length  it  had  been  carried  in  France  ?  Might  not  the 
conflagrations,  the  bloody  scenes  of  St.  Domingo,  be  ex- 
hibited, in  that  case,  on  our  own  peaceful  shores? 

The  French  were  a  brave,  generous,  enlightened  na- 
tion. They  had  performed  the  most  brilliant  achieve- 
ments recorded  in  history.  They  had  broken  the  chains 
of  despotism,  had  obliterated  hierarchical  and  feudal  tyr- 
anny, and  had  exercised  the  power  belonging  to  all  nations 
of  establishing  a  government  of  their  own.  They  de- 


MADISON'S    RESOLUTIONS— DEBATE.  457 

/served  to  be  happy  under  it,  and  he  prayed  God  they  CHAPTER 

might  be.      But  if  any  parallel  was  to  be  drawn  between '. 

our  government  and  that  of  any  nation  of  Europe,  it  was  1794. 
the  British  Constitution  which  presented  the  most  nu- 
merous points  of  resemblance.  Their  executive  was  sin- 
gle ;  their  Legislature  was  divided  into  two  houses. 
Such  was  the  general  outline  of  our  governments,  only 
we  had  improved  on  the  British  model  by  rendering  our 
public  functionaries  more  responsible  to  the  people.  We 
had  abolished  feudal  rights  and  perpetuities  ;  the  only 
remnant  of  that  system  to  be  found  among  us  was  that, 
in  seme  states  (the  allusion  was  to  Virginia),  lands  were 
unjustly  exempted  from  the  payment  of  debts.  That 
stain  on  American  principles  he  hoped  would  soon  be 
forever  removed. 

This  assimilation  of  the  American  governments  to  that 
cf  Great  Britain  w~as  very  offensive  to  some  members  of 
the  House.  Smilie,  and  Lee's  colleague,  Moore,  exclaim- 
ed loudly  against  it.  "  It  is  enough  for  us,"  said  Moore, 
"  that  the  French  Constitution  has  liberty  for  its  basis. 
From  such  a  source  we  have  a  right  to  expect  justice 
and  reciprocity  of  commerce." 

Dexter  thought  it  very  strange,  if  the  tendency  of 
these  resolutions  actually  was,  as  their  advocates  main-  Jan  w 
tained,  to  relieve  American  commerce  from  unreasonable 
restrictions  and  to  encourage  American  manufactures, 
that  the  members  from  the  Eastern  States,  which  were 
particularly  interested  in  navigation  and  manufactures, 
and  those  members  of  the  best  mercantile  information, 
including  such  as  were  personally  engaged  in  commerce, 
should  be  almost  unanimously  against  them.  And,  in 
fact,  their  operation  seemed  to  be,  by  compelling  us  to 
purchase  at  a  dearer  market,  to  tax  us  for  the  benefit  of 
a  foreign  nation  Our  trade  was,  no  doubt,  exposed  to 


468  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  some  obstructions;  but  most  of  them  grew  from  omr 
yon th  as  a  nation,  or  from  adventitious  circumstances* 


1794  -^  was  m  va*n  *°  l>an^  ~^or  Prematnre  manhood,  or  to  ex- 
pect to  control  the  commercial  regulations  of  all  the 
world.  The  body  politic,  like  the  natural  body,  often 
suffered  more  from  the  bold  ignorance  of  quacks,  or  from 
the  ingenious  but  false  hypotheses  of  the  learned,  than 
from  the  malady  complained  of.  There  was  an  effort  of 
nature  to  relieve  disease  often  more  efficacious  than  any 
medicine.  To  commence  a  commercial  warfare  at  the 
hazard  of  onr  trade,  perhaps  of  our  peace,  mainly  for  the 
benefit  of  strangers,  wa-s,  in  his  view,  to  betray  the  inter- 
ests of  the  country. 

"Notwithstanding"  our  resentments-,  let  us  be  just 
Great  Britain  makes  many  important  discriminations  in 
her  European  dominions  in  favor  of  our  produce  which 
we  do  not  reciprocate.  She  makes  no  discriminations 
against  us  except  to  favor  her  own  navigation  and  prod- 
uce, and  we  have  already  done  the  same  by  her.  Her 
standing  laws,  excluding  our  ships  from  her  islands  in  the 
West  Indies,  are  the  most  exceptionable  part  of  her  pol- 
icy. But  she  admits  our  produce  there,  and  this-  forms  a 
valuable  part  of  our  exports;  while  Spain  and  Portugal 
not  only  exclude  our  ships  from  their  colonies,  but  our 
produce  also.  And  yet  it  is  sought  by  the  advocates  of 
these  resolutions  to  shield  Spain  and  Portugal  against 
their  operation. 

"  It  is  said  that,  by  depriving-  the  British  of  the  neces- 
saries of  life  and  of  the  raw  materials  for  manufactures, 
we  shall  compel  them  to  treat  us  more  equitably.  But 
it  is  already  a  ground  of  complaint  against  them  that 
they  refuse  to  take  our  provisions  except  in  times  of 
scarcity ;  and  as  neither  of  these  resolutions  ordains  a 
famine  in  Great  Britain,  the  prospect  of  starving  her  into 


MADISON'S    RESOLUTIONS-DEBATE.  469 

a  treaty  does   not    seem  very  promising.      As  to   raw  CHAPTER 
materials,  we  know  not  how  much  other  nations  might 

7  O  ' — ' 

supply.  When  a  new  demand  arises,  necessity  opens 
new  resources,  and  in  this  way  we  might  create  formid- 
able and  permanent  rivals.  Can  we  distress  Great  Brit- 
ain by  refusing  to  take  her  manufactures  ?  From  state- 
ments made  by  the  mover  of  the  resolutions,  it  appears 
that  we  take  only  four  per  cent,  on  the  total  amount  of 
British  manufactures.  The  most  they  could  lose,  then, 
would  be  the  profit  on  this  four  per  cent.  But  they 
would  not  lose  even  that.  The  withdrawal  of  manufac- 
tures from  other  countries  to  supply  us  would  make  an 
•opening,  and  British  manufactures  would  fill  up  the  gap. 
Nay,  we  ourselves  should  take  British  manufactures  at 
the  hand  of  other  nations,  and  at  an  enhanced  price, 
while  our  balky  commodities,  not  able  to  bear  the  ex- 
penses of  a  double  voyage,  and  being  cut  off  from  their 
accustomed  market,  would  perish  on  our  hands. 

"  We  are  told  that  we  ought  to  resent  the  injuries 
and  insults  of  Great  Britain — but  is  this  the  way  ?  If 
the  question  is  as  to  retaliating  by  hostilities,  let  us  have 
it  freely  and  boldly  stated.  Away  with  all  mean  dis- 
guises !  Surely  we  are  not  afraid  to  look  that  question 
in  the  face ;  nor  do  we  wish  to  conceal  from  others  what 
we. are  about.  But,  before  taking  such  a  step,  let  us 
consider  the  consequences ;  how  much  we  have  to  lose, 
and  how  little  to  gain.  Britain  is  aided  by  powerful  al- 
lies, who  hate  and  despise  our  political  system.  Our 
former  ally,  instead  of  assisting  us,  needs  assistance  her- 
self. The  commerce  of  Great  Britain  is  already  inter- 
rupted by  war,  and  we  could  add  little  to  her  embarrass- 
ments, while  our  flourishing  commerce  must  be  sacri- 
ficed, as  we  have  no  fleet  to  protect  it.  As  to  revenue, 
Britain  has  a)*  the  advantages  without  the  evils  of  bank- 


470  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

CHAPTER  ruptcy  ;  her  national  debt  will  never  be  paid,  but  nei 
'  creditors  are  both  able  and  willing  to  support  her  ;  while 
1794.  to  add  even  a  few  millions  to  our  debt  would  alarm  both 
us  and  our  constituents.  British  soldiers  are  inured  tc 
foreign  warfare  ;  our  independent  yeomen  are  invincible 
in  battle  for  their  rights,  their  habitations,  their  fami- 
lies ;  the  world  can  not  subjugate  them ;  but  they  har- 
bor no  wish  for  conquest  or  plunder.  If  wfe  commence 
hostilities,  we  must  persevere  through  every  extremity 
of  suffering,  or  meanly  prostrate  ourselves  at  the  feet  ol 
Britain,  to  bear  whatever  she  may  impose. 

"  When  the  welfare  and  dignity  of  our  country  re- 
quire energy,  I  shall  not  be  found  an  advocate  of  a  pu- 
sillanimous system.  No  man  is  prouder  of  his  country 
than  I  am.  I  agonize  under  the  indignities  she  has  suf 
fered;  but  to  repress  resentment  is  sometimes  true  cour 
age.  Untimely  passion,  which  may  betray  the  dignity 
and  the  interests  of  the  community,  is  perfidious.  Our 
growth  is  so  rapid  that  a  few  years  of  peace  will  avenge 
us.  I  speak  thus  not  because  I  am  a  friend  of  Great 
Britain,  but  because  a  sense  of  duty  compels  me.  If  I 
have  prejudices,  they  are  not  in  favor  of  England,  but 
of  the  people  with  whom  she  is  at  war.  I  can  never 
forget  that  probably  by  them  we  exist  as  a  nation 
France  is  the  place  of  my  fathers'  sepulchers.  No  man 
more  ardently  wishes  liberty  and  happiness  to  the  French 
nation.  No  man,  it  is  but  just  to  add,  more  sincerely 
laments  that  spasm  of  patriotism  which  now  convulses 
the  body  politic  of  France,  and  greatly  hazards  the  cause 
of  freedom.  But  we  ought  not  to  suffer  a  torrent  of 
feeling  to  sweep  us  from  our  post.  We  are  neither 
Britons  nor  Frenchmen,  but  Arrsricans,  the  representa- 
tives of  Americans,  the  guardians  of  their  interests;  and 
these  forbid  us  to  adopt  the  policy  proposed." 


MADISON'S    EESOLUTIONS— DEBATE.  471 

Giles  admitted  "  that  propositions  going  to  so  f  unda-  CHAPTER 
mental  a  change  of  policy  ought  not  to  be  adopted  with-  . 

out  a  clear  case  in  their  favor.  This  necessity  was  in-  1794, 
creased  by  the  opposition  of  the  merchants,  whose  intel- 
ligence and  patriotism  he  was  not  disposed  to  deny. 
Yet  the  known  attachment  of  mercantile  men  to  routine, 
and  their  disposition  to  magnify  the  hazard  of.  every 
change,  were  reasons  for  not  taking  their  opinions  as 
conclusive,  while  the  opposition  of  the  British  mercan- 
tile interest  ought  to  weigh  as  much  in  favor  of  the  res- 
olutions as  the  opposition  of  the  American  merchants 
did  against  them. 

"  Apart  from  political  considerations,  three  fourths  of 
the  impression  on  his  mind  in  favor  of  the  resolutions 
would  be  lost.  Yet  even  on  commercial  grounds  alone 
there  was  case  enough  in  their  favor.  The  statements 
and  calculations  going  to  show  that  our  trade  with  Great 
Britain  stood  on  ground  as  favorable  as  that  with  any 
other  nation,  were  based  on  the  state  of  things  before  the 
breaking  out  of  the  present  war  ;  whereas  the  aggressions 
of  Great  Britain  since  that  period  ought  to  be  taken  into 
account.  The  crusty  old  maxim  of  no  friendship  in 
trade  surely  could  not  be  extended  to  mean  that  it  is 
better  to  trade  with  an  enemy  than  with  a  friend.  The 
friendship  of  a  great  nation  was  intrinsically  a  valuable 
thing,  and,  when  founded  upon  interest,  it  became  an 
important  item  of  calculation.  Such  was  the  case  as 
between  France  and  the  United  States.  It  was  for  the 
interest  of  France  that  the  United  States  should  retain 
a  republican  form  of  government.  It  was  for  the  inter- 
est of  the  United  States,  perhaps  their  salvation,  that 
France  should  preserve  a  republican  form  of  government. 
Under  these  circumstances,  the  favorable  opinion  *>f 
^rance  toward  the  United  States  was  a  thing  of  mate- 


472  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  rial  value,  which  ought  to  be  taken  into  account  even 

VI. 

_  under  the  rigid  maxim  laid  down  on  the  other  side.     As 


1794.  to  ^ie  alleged  similarity  between  the  governments  of 
Great  Britain  and  America,  it  was  one  of  form  merely. 
The  French  and  American  governments  agreed  in  the 
fundamental  principles  of  the  consent  of  the  people  and 
equality  of  rights;  while  the  fundamental  principle  of 
the  British  government  was  coercion,  and  its  object  a 
monopoly  of  rights. 

"  He  denied  any  weight  in  the  argument  that  Great 
Britain  treated  us  as  well  as  she  did  other  nations.  It 
was  a  poor  consolation  that,  while  the  United  States  are 
held  in  commercial  bondage,  all  other  nations,  one  ex- 
cepted,  are  in  the  same  predicament  If  Great  Britain 
had  assumed  the  position  of  dominant  nation  in  the  com- 
mercial world,  she  was  indebted  for  it  less  to  her  own 
energy  than  to  the  acquiescence  of  other  nations.  The 
United  States  ought  not  to  wait  for  an  example  ;  they 
should  proceed  at  once  to  convince  the  world  that  they 
understand  their  rights,  and  have  vigor  and  ability  to 
enforce  them. 

"Restrictions  and  commercial  treaties,  though  bad  in 
themselves,  became  necessary  as  means  of  defense.  If 
a  nation  allowed  its  trade  to  be  monopolized  by  another, 
that  other  would  insensibly  gain  an  irresistible  internal 
influence.  Great  Britain  had  monopolized  half  our 
trade  ;  she  had  a  mercantile  capital  operating  from  one 
end  of  the  Union  to  the  other,  and  agents  employed  in 
its  management.  Intimate  connections  were  formed  be- 
tween them  and  our  own  citizens.  Thus  there  was,  he 
inclined  to  think,  an  unperceived  foreign  influence  oper- 
ating at  this  very  moment  on  our  councils. 

"  Whether  or  not  our  trade  with  Great  Britain,  so 
far  as  related  to  the  carriage  of  goods,  stood  on  fair  and 


MADISON'S   RESOLUTIONS— DEBATE.  473 

equal  ground,  is  to  be  tested,  not  so  much  by  its  actual  CHAPTEK 
distribution  as  by  the  relative  need  of  each  country  for          ' 
the  productions  of  the  other.      We  supply  necessaries,   1794, 
she  supplies  luxuries ;    she  needs  our  trade  more  than 
we  need  hers  ;   she  is  a  dependent  customer,  and  ought, 
therefore,  to  allow  us  the  larger  share,  or  at  least  an  equal 
share,  in  carrying  it  on  ;  and,  since  she  is  not  so  inclined, 
this  same  circumstance  that  we  supply  her  with  neces- 
saries gives  us  the  means  of  compelling  her  to  do  so. 

"  Tottering  under  the  weight  of  a  king,  a  nobility,  a 
priesthood,  armies,  navies,  debts,  all  the  complicated  ma- 
chinery of  oppression,  with  so  many  unproductive  hands 
as  to  be  unable  to  feed  her  own  inhabitants,  engaged  in 
a  foreign  war,  and  with  taxation  carried  to  the  last  pitch 
of  financial  contrivance,  Great  Britain  is  no  match  for 
the  United  States,  in  the  flower  of  youth,  their  popula- 
tion and  wealth  increasing.  An  unfortunate  imitative 
policy  had  indeed  prevailed  in  the  erection  of  a  national 
debt,  in  adopting  all  the  paper  machinery  for  increasing 
the  number  of  unproductive,  and  lessening  the  number 
of  productive  hands,  in  the  establishment  of  an  army, 
and,  by  a  vote  of  the  present  session,  in  preparations  for 
a  navy.  Yet  the  operation  of  natural  causes  in  some 
degree  counterbalanced  these  mistakes,  so  as  still  to  give 
to  the  United  States  a  great  superiority  as  compared  with 
Great  Britain. 

"  It  is  true  that  our  trade  with  Great  Britain  is  one 
half  our  whole  commerce,  while  the  trade  of  Great  Brit- 
ain with  us  is  but  one  sixth  of  hers.  But,  then,  this 
sixth  is  exceedingly  profitable,  and  quite  essential  to  her 
other  trade,  whereas  half  our  trade  with  her  is  a  losing 
business.  As  to  the  threatened  loss  of  revenue,  by  ceas- 
ing to  consume  foreign  luxuries,  we  should  be  the  bettei 
able  to  pay  taxes.  The  particular  mode  in  which  the  rev. 


474  HISTOKY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  enue  is  raised  is  not  important.  But  why  all  this  sens- 
.  itiveness  about  revenue  ?  Why  this  doubt  and  hesita- 
1794.  tion  ?  Such  was  not  the  language  of  America  at  the 
time  of  the  non-importation  agreement ;  such  was  not 
her  language  when  independence  was  declared  !  Whence 
this  change  of  American  sentiment  ?  Is  America  less 
able  now  than  she  was  then  ?  Is  she  less  prepared  for 
a  national  trial  ?  One  great  change  had  indeed  taken 
place  in  her  political  situation.  America  has  now  a  fund- 
ed debt ;  she  had  none  at  those  glorious  epochs.  May 
not  the  origin  of  this  change  of  sentiment  be  looked  for 
in  change  of  position  ?  May  it  not  be  looked  for  in  the 
imitative,  sympathetic  organization  of  our  funding  sys- 
tem ;  in  the  indiscriminate  participation  of  citizens  and 
foreigners  in  the  emoluments  of  that  system ;  in  the  wish- 
es of  some  to  assimilate  the  government  of  the  United 
States  to  that  of  Great  Britain,  or,  at  least,  their  wishes 
for  a  more  intimate  connection  with  that  nation  ? 

"  If  these  causes  exist,  it  is  not  difficult  to  find  the 
sources  of  the  national  debility.  The  interests  of  the  few 
who  receive  the  public  contributions  are  more  respected 
than  the  interests  of  the  great  body  of  society  who  pay 
them.  Instead  of  legislating  for  millions,  the  govern- 
ment is  legislating  for  a  few  thousands,  the  sacredness 
of  whose  claims  on  the  public  treasury  is  the  chief  ob 
stacle  to  a  great  national  exertion. 

"  We  have  been  admonished  to  banish  feeling  and  to 
take  counsel  of  judgment,  but  I  doubt  ,the  truth  of  a 
philosophy  which  advises  us  to  banish  an  essential  in- 
gredient of  human  nature.  Feeling  and  judgment  ought 
to  perform  their  respective  offices  :  feeling  should  stimu- 
late our  actions  ;  judgment  should  direct  the  wisest 
means.  The  United  States  have  been  injured  and  in- 
sulted. Instead  of  patience  and  forbearance,  caution 


MADISON'S    RESOLUTIONS— DEB  ATE.  475 

itself  ought  to  prescribe  boldness,  enterprise,  energy,  and  CHAPTER 
firmness.       Great   Britain   calculates   on   her   influence  _____ 
among  us,  and  -a  want  of  concert  in  our  councils.      Now  1794. 
is  the  time  to  convince  the  world  that  injury  from  abroad 
produces  union  at  home." 

The  speeches  already  given — particularly  that  of  Giles, 
an  excellent  specimen  of  the  sophistry  in  which  he  ex- 
celled— will  serve  to  show  the  views  taken  on  either  side, 
and  the  tone  and  temper  in  which  they  were  urged  ;  and 
they  merit  the  greater  attention,  as  exhibiting  the  real 
character  of  the  political  divisions  which  prevailed  in  the 
United  States  for  twenty  years  to  come.  The  debate 
was  continued  with  great  energy,  but  with  the  sugges- 
tion of  very  little  that  was  new,  by  Hartley,  Tracy, 
Boudinot,  Dayton,  Hillhouse,  Ames,  Murray,  Smith  of 
Maryland,  and  Smith  of  South  Carolina,  against  the  res- 
olutions, and  by  Nicholas  and  Madison  for  them.  The 
question  being  taken  on  the  first  resolution — that  assert-  Feb.  3 
ing  the  general  policy  of  discriminating  duties  on  the 
products  of  nations  not  in  treaty  with  us — it  was  carried 
.in  committee,  fifty-one  to  forty-six. 

The  second  resolution  coming  up — that  enumerating  Feb.  4 
the  specific  duties  to  be  imposed — Nicholas  offered  an 
amendment,  by  which  they  were  made  to  apply  to  Great 
Britain  alone.  He  scouted  the  idea  of  looking  at  these 
resolutions  as  a  regulation  of  commerce.  He  wished  to 
make  them  in  form  what  they  were  intended  to  be  in 
fact,  a  hostile  movement  against  Great  Britain.  Of  the 
debate  on  this  amendment  no  report  is  preserved.  The 
friends  of  the  resolutions,  doubtful,  perhaps,  of  this  new 
ground,  voted  fifty-one  to  forty-seven  to  postpone  the  sub- 
ject for  a  month,  to  wait,  as  they  alleged,  the  result  of  the 
pending  negotiations  as  to  the  recent  British  interferences 
with  our  commerce. 


476  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER       So  far  as  respects  the  commercial  aspect  of  these  fa- 

mous  resolutions,  the  policy  proposed  by  them,  in  their 

1794  domestic  bearing,  was  very  far  from  being  •original  either 
with  Jefferson  or  Madison.  It  was,  in  fact,  the  revival 
of  an  old  Virginian  notion,  which  may  be  traced  back  to 
very  early  colonial  times.  For  more  than  a  century  be- 
fore the  Revolution,  the  exclusive  control  of  the  com- 
merce of  Virginia  by  English  traders,  the  exclusive  use 
of  English  manufactures,  and  the  exclusive  employment 
of  English  ships,  had  excited  the  jealousy  of  the  colo- 
nial Legislature,  and  had  led  to  a  long  series  of  acts  for 
encouraging  the  building  of  towns,  and  the  promotion 
of  domestic  commerce,  navigation,  and  manufactures. 
Among  the  other  expedients  employed  was  this  very 
levying  of  duties  on  British  goods  imported,  and  discrim- 
inating tonnage  duties  in  favor  of  vessels  built  in  Vir- 
ginia. Many  of  these  acts  had  never  gone  into  effect, 
the  British  merchants  having  procured  their  disallow- 
ance by  the  crown.  But  other  and  more  potent  causes 
existed  in  the  internal  social  system  of  Virginia  for  the 
failure  of  all  these  attempts  to  foster  domestic  interests. 
In  New  England  and  the  other  northern  colonies  a  do- 

O 

mestic  commerce  and  navigation  had  sprung  into  exist- 
ence, in  spite  of  English  competition  and  English  legis- 
lation ;  and  it  was  to  the  benefit  of  these  states,  and  not 
to  that  of  Virginia,  as  subsequent  experience  has  abun- 
dantly proved,  that  any  system  of  exclusion  brought  to 
bear  on  Great  Britain  was  sure  to  redound. 

Of  the  efficacy  of  these  commercial  restrictions  as  a 
means  of  coercing  Great  Britain,  Madison  and  his  party 
entertained  very  extravagant  ideas,  of  which  they  had 
afterward  ample  opportunities  to  be  cured.  What,  in- 
deed, could  be  more  extravagant  than  the  statement  that 
Great  Britain  imported  necessaries  from  us,  and  we  only 


RECALL    OF    GENET.  477 

luxuries  irum  her,  repeated  over  and  over  again  by  the  CHAT-TEH 

representatives  of  a  state  whose  chief  export  was  tobacco, „ 

and  whose  imports  were  principally  clothing,  tools,  and  1794 
other  manufactured  articles  of  daily  use  and  necessity  ? 
In  all  these  commercial  struggles,  nothing  is  more  cer- 
tain than  that  the  richest  party  can  endure  the  longest, 
and  is  sure  to  triumph  in  the  end. 

It  was  hardly,  however,  with  any  view  to  commerce 
that  these  resolutions  had  been  brought  forward  at  this 
moment.  They  must  be  regarded  rather  as  a  party  ex- 
pedient for  stimulating  the  sentiment  of  hostility  to  Great 
Britain  introduced  by  way  of  counterbalance  to  the  gen- 
eral rally  in  favor  of  the  government,  as  against  the  in- 
solence of  Genet ;  which  rally,  if  not  counteracted,  might 
give  a  decided  predominance  to  those  who  favored  a  strict 
neutrality,  thus  strengthening  the  hands  of  Hamilton  and 
the  Federalists. 

Pending  this  debate,  the  president  gave  information 
to  Congress  that  Genet's  recall  had  been  conceded.  His 
friends,  the  Girondins,  accused  of  conspiracy  against  the 
unity  and  indivisibility  of  the  republic,  had  fallen  from 
power.  The  control  of  French  affairs  had  passed  into  the 
hands  of  the  Jacobins,  headed  by  Danton  and  Robes- 
pierre. These  new  administrators  of  the  French  govern- 
ment made  no  difficulty  in  recalling  Genet ;  but  they 
took  advantage  of  this  occasion  to  ask,  in  their  turn,  the 
recall  of  Morris,  altogether  too  moderate  in  his  political 
views,  and  quite  too  little  of  an  enthusiast  to  find  favor 
even  with  the  Girondins,  and  still  less  so  with  the  yet 
more  violent  party  on  whom  the  administration  of  affairs 
had  now  devolved. 

The  news  from  France  was  indeed  of  a  kind  to  ex- 
cite painful  doubts  in  the  minds  of  her  more  thoughtful 
sympathizers.  Hardly  had  the  Republican  Constitution 


478  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  been  agretd  to  before  it  had  been  suspended,  and  a  des- 
,  potic  power  assumed  by  the  Convention — >a  power  soon 

1794.  engrossed  by  two  committees  of  that  body.  The  leading 
Girondins,  expelled  from  their  seats  in  the  Legislature, 
had  been  sent,  on  vague  charges,  to  prison  or  the  scaffold. 
The  south  and  west  of  France  had  become  the  scene  of  a 
terrible  civil  war.  The  republic  had  experienced  great 
reverses  on  the  frontiers.  The  Reign  of  Terror  had  com- 
menced. It  was,  perhaps,  the  desire  to  wait  further  in- 
formation from  Europe  that  had  occasioned  the  debate  on 
Madison's  resolutions  to  be  postponed. 

Genet  did  not  choose  to  risk  the  danger  of  returning 
to  France.  He  had  married  a  daughter  of  Governor 
Clinton,  of  New  York,  and  he  remained  thenceforth  a 
resident  of  that  state ;  but  from  the  moment  of  ceasing 
to  be  French  minister,  he  sunk  at  once  into  total  ob- 
scurity. His  successor,  M.  Fauchet,  though  he  contin- 
ued the  old  secretaries,  and  succeeded  to  all  of  Genet's 
intimacies,  conducted  with  a  good  deal  more  of  modera- 
tion. Though  he  alone  had  the  rank  of  minister,  he  had, 
in  fact,  two  colleagues,  one  of  whom  was  French  consul 
general,  the  other  consul  for  Philadelphia.  But,  besides 
the  official  correspondence  which  passed  under  their  eye, 
Fauchet  kept  up  a  private  correspondence  of  his  own 
with  the  French  Department  of  Foreign  Affairs. 

Santhonax  and  Polverel,  the  French  commissioners  for 
the  island  of  St.  Domingo,  dispatched  thither  simultane- 
ously with  Genet's  mission  to  the  United  States,  after 
having  added  a  civil  war  to  the  revolt  of  the  negroes  in 
the  northern  part  of  that  colony,  had  ended  with  pro- 
claiming the  freedom  of  all  the  slaves.  This  was  done 
partly,  perhaps,  as  a  retaliation  on  the  planters,  most  of 
whom  had  taken  sides  against  the  commissioners,  and 
partly  as  a  means  of  saving  the  colony  from  the  En 


ST.  DOMINGO    REFUGEES.  4.79 

glish,  by  whom  an  invasion  was  threatened ;  or,  at  least,  CHAPTER 

of  rendering  it  a  worthless  conquest.     Soon  after  this 

proclamation  all  the  remaining  French  troops  were  with-  ^794 
drawn.  The  white  inhabitants  continued  to  emigrate  in 
large  numbers,  and  many  had  lately  arrived  at  Baltimore 
in  a  state  of  complete  destitution,  An  application  to 
Congress  on  the  part  of  a  committee,  formed  at  Balti- 
more for  the  relief  of  these  unfortunate  refugees,  for  aid 
toward  that  object,  raised  a  nice  constitutional  question. 
Madison  opposed  entering  on  the  subject,  on  the  ground  Jan.  10. 
that  the  authority  of  the  government  of  the  United  States 
was  limited  to  specific  objects,  of  which  charity  was  not 
one.  Nicholas  and  Giles  took  the  same  view,  and  Dex- 
ter admitted  that  there  was  weight  in  it.  But  Murray 
argued  that,  as  the  states  individually  had  surrendered  to 
the  general  government  the  regulation  of  intercourse  with 
foreign  nations,  it  came  fully  within  the  scope  of  the  au- 
thority of  Congress  to  provide  relief  in  cases  like  the  pres- 
ent. The  same  view  was  maintained  by  Boudinot ;  and 
an  act  was  finally  passed,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the 
strict  constructionists,  granting  fifteen  thousand  dollars 
for  the  relief  of  the  refugees.  Nicholas  was  very  urgent 
to  insert  a  clause  that  Congress  granted  the  money,  know- 
ing they  had  no  authority  to  do  so,  but  trusting  to  the 
humanity  of  their  constituents  to  excuse  them.  In  this, 
however,  he  did  not  prevail.  On  this  question  the  Vir- 
ginia leaders  experienced  a  signal  defeat,  the  very  sym- 
pathy for  France,  on  which  they  so  much  relied,  opera- 
ting against  them. 

A  like  defeat  was  experienced  on  the  question  of  pro- 
viding a  naval  force,  the  committee  on  that  subject  having 
reported  in  favor  of  building  four  frigates.    After  Madi- 
son's resolutions  had  been  laid  aside,  this  report  was  taken   Feb.  5. 
up,  and  debated  with  much  earnestness.     The  greater 


480  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  part  of  those  members  who  had  evinced  in  trie  preceding 
..  debate  so  much  anxiety  for  the  growth  and  protection  of 

1794.  American  commerce  and  navigation,  took  strong  ground 
against  the  report.  In  vain  was  the  necessity  urged  of 
a  permanent  naval  establishment,  not  only  as  a  protec- 
tion to  our  shipping  against  the  piratical  Barbary  states, 
but  to  inspire  the  belligerent  nations  with  respect  for  our 
rights  as  neutrals,  and  to  protect  us  from  insult  in  our 
own  ports  and  harbors.  It  was  answered  that  these  few 
ships  would  only  serve  to  expose  our  weakness,  and  as 
a  mere  temptation  to  the  belligerents,  one  or  other  of 
whom  would  be  ready  to  seize  them  on  the  first  conven- 
ient pretext.  Even  as  against  the  Barbary  pirates,  if 
force  were  relied  upon,  many  more  ships  would  be  nec- 
essary, and  the  policy  of  buying  a  peace  was  very  strong- 
ly urged.  But  though  zealously  pressed  by  Madison, 
Clark,  Nicholas,  Giles,  Smilie,  and  Findley,  these  argu- 
ments did  not  prevail.  The  opposition  were  deserted  by 
several  members  from  the  maritime  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, who  on  former  occasions  had  voted  with  them.  Yet 
their  arguments  and  opposition  were  not  altogether  with- 
Mar  11.  out  effect.  The  bill,  as  passed,  provided  for  building 
six  frigates,  four  of  forty-four  guns  and  two  of  thirty-six 
guns,  for  which  purpose  $688,888  were  appropriated  by 
a  subsequent  act — the  first  step  toward  the  creation  of 
the  existing  American  navy.  But  a  clause  was  added 
for  suspending  proceedings  in  case  of  a  peace  with  Al- 
giers, to  purchase  which  a  million  of  dollars  was  appro- 
priated, which  sum,  by  another  act,  the  president  was  au 
thorized  to  borrow. 

Before  this  matter  of  the  frigates  had  been  finally  dis 

posed  of,  the  same  committee,   enlarged,  however,   for 

that  purpose  into  a  committee  of  one  from  each  state 

War.  4.  reported  a  bill  for  the  fortification  of  harbors.     The  act 


f-ORTIF  I  CATIONS 

as  finally  passed,  authorized  the  president  to  commence 
fortifications  at  Portland,  Portsmouth,  Gloucester,  Salem,  ' 
Boston,  Newport,  New  London,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  1794. 
Wilmington,  Baltimore,  Alexandria,  Norfolk,  Ocr acock 
Inlet,  Cape  Fear  River,  Georgetown,  Charleston,  Sa- 
vannah, and  St.  Mary's.  Annapolis  was  added  by  a 
subsequent  act.  But  the  whole  amount  appropriated  for 
this  purpose  was  only  $136,000.  By  the  same  act  the 
president  was  authorized  to  purchase  two  hundred  can- 
non for  the  armament  of  the  new  fortifications,  and  to 
provide  a  hundred  and  fifty  extra  gun-carriages,  with  two 
hundred  and  fifty  tons  of  cannon  balls,  for  which  pur- 
pose $96,000  were  appropriated.  Another  act  appro- 
priated $81,000  for  establishing  arsenals  and  armories, 
in  addition  to  those  at  Springfield  and  Carlisle,  besides 
$340,000  for  the  purchase  of  arms  and  stores.  The 
exportation  of  arms  Was  prohibited  for  a  year,  and  all 
arms  imported  during  the  next  two  years  were  to  be  free 
of  duty. 

While  these  measures  were  under  consideration,  the 
excitement  against  Great  Britain  received  a  new  im- 
pulse. A  British  order  in  council,  dated  Nov.  6th,  1793, 
but  not  made  public  till  the  close  of  the  year,  had  di- 
rected the  British  cruisers  to  stop,  detain,  and  to  bring 
in  for  adjudication  all  ships  laden  with  goods  the  produce 
of  any  French  colony,  or  carrying  provisions  or  other 
supplies  for  the  nse  of  such  colony.  This  order,  the  lit- 
eral purport  of  which  went  to  destroy  all  neutral  trade 
with  the  French  colonies,  even  that  which  had  been  al- 
lowed in  time  of  peace,  was  issued  simultaneously  with 
the  dispatch  of  a  great  expedition  for  the  conquest  of  the 
French  West  Indies,  to  which  the  English  had  been 
stimulated  by  the  appeals  of  the  French  planters,  indig- 
nant at  the  emancipation  of  their  slaves — a  policy  ex- 
IV.— H  H 


482  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  tended  to  the  other  French  colonies,  as  well  as  to  that 

VI. 

! of  St.  Domingo.     Martinique,  St.  Lucie,  and  Guadaloupe 

1794.  all  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  English;  though,  later  in 
the  season,  Guadaloupe  and  St.  Lucie  were  recovered  by 
the  redoubtable  Victor  Hugues,  formerly  a  baker  at  Port 
au  Prince,  but  suddenly  raised,  in  the  confusion  of  the 
times,  to  high  political  authority,  and  appointed  by  the 
French  Convention  commissioner  for  the  Windward  Isl- 
ands. St.  Domingo  was  also  invaded,  and  the  British 
and  Spaniards  were  enabled,  by  the  aid  of  the  planters,, 
to  occupy  several  towns  on  the  coast.  But  the  interior 
of  the  island,  and  a  part  of  the  coast  also,  continued  to- 
be  held  for  the  French  republic  by  several  mulatto  and 
black  chiefs-,  among  whom  Toussaint  soon  rose  to  emi- 
nence. 

The  news  of  the-  British  order  in  council  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  French  colonial  trade  produced  a  great  ex- 
eitement  at  Philadelphia.  The  struggle,  for  the  moment, 
seemed  to  be  which  party  should  show  itself  most  decided 

March  12.  as  against  this  new  aggression.  Sedgwick  introduced  a 
series  of  resolutions  for  the  raising  of  fifteen  regiments 
of  a  thousand  men  each,  to  be  enlisted  for  two  years,  but 
bound  to  serve  three  years  if  war  should  break  out,  and 
in  the  mean  time  to  be  drilled  not  exceeding  twenty-four 
days  in  each  year,  to  be  paid  half  a  dollar  for  each  day's 
service.  The  consideration  of  this  proposal  was  set  aside 
by  the  calling  up  of  Madison's  resolutions,  upon  which 
another  long 'debate  ensued.  In  addition  to  the  old  ob- 
jections, this  new  one  was  now  urged,  that  the  existing 
state  of  things  looked  to  war,  and  that  something  more 
serious  had  become  necessary  than  mere  regulations  of 
commerce.  In  the  course  of  the  debate,  Ames  denounced 
the  resolutions  as  having  French  stamped  on  their  face  f 
to  which  Parker  replied,  with  great  warmth,  that  he 


EXCITEMENT   AGAINST    GREAT   BRITAIN.       495 

wishcl  every  body  had  a  stamp  on  his  forehead,  to  show  CHAPTER 
whether  he  was  for  France  or  Great  Britain.      He  en-  - 

tered  upon  a  high  eulogium  of  France,  to  which  country  1794. 
alone  it  was  owing  that  we  enjoyed  independence.  This 
sentiment  drew  down  the  applause  of  the  galleries  :  but 
the  House,  however  French  precedents  might  have  just- 
ified them,  were  not  willing  to  submit  to  this  intrusion, 
and  the  galleries,  though  not  without  a  debate  upon  it, 
were  ordered  to  be  cleared. 

While  this  debate  was  still  going  on,  the  feeling  against 
Great  Britain  was  still  further  stimulated  by  the  publi- 
cation in  the  New  York  papers  of  what  purported  to  be 
a  speech  of  Lord  Dorchester's  to  certain  Indians  who  had 
waited  upon  him  as  a  deputation  from  the  late  general 
council  held  at  the  Rapids  of  the  Maumee.  The  sugges- 
tion in  this  speech  of  the  probability  of  a  speedy  rupture 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  was  taken 
as  new  and  strong  proof  of  the  hostile  disposition  of  the 
British,  especially  as  Lord  Dorchester  had  just  returned 
from  a  visit  to  England,  and  might  be  supposed  to  speak 
by  authority.  The  authenticity  of  this  speech  has  been  . 
called  in  question  by  Marshall  and  others,  it  is  believed, 
however,  on  insufficient  grounds.  At  all  events,  no  such 
.dea  was  suggested  by  Hammond,  the  British  minister, 
between  whom  and  Randolph  a  rather  tart  correspond- 
ence presently  ensued  on  the  subject  of  this  speech,  and 
respecting  certain  alleged  encroachments  by  the  people  of 
Vermont,  the  building  of  a  new  fort  by  the  British  on 
the  Maumee,  and  other  matters  of  mutual  complaint. 

Under  the  excitement  of  the  moment,  a  joint  resolu-  March  2« 
tion  was  passed,  laying  an  embargo  for  thirty  days,  after- 
ward extended  for  thirty  days  longer — a  measure  which 
seemed  to  have  chiefly  in  view  the  obstructing  the  sup- 
ply  of  piovisions  to  the  British  fleet  and  army  in  the 


484          HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


West  Indies,  but  which  operated  quite  as  much  against 
..  "  *hp.  French.  Sedgwick's  resolutions  had  been  rejected 
1794.  but  a  substitute  was  passed  suggesting  a  draft  of  militia. 
A  committee,  to  whom  this  substitute  was  referred,  pro- 
posed to  detach  from  the  militia  eighty  thousand  minutes 
men  ;  to  enlist,  for  the  purpose  of  manning  the  new  forti- 
fications, a  regiment  of  artillery,  including  among  the 
officers  one  chief  engineer  and  three  assistants  ;  and  to 
raise,  besides,  an  additional  standing  force  of  twenty-five 
thousand  men. 

March  27.  Simultaneously  with  the  report  of  this  committee, 
Smith,  of  South  Carolina,  suggested  that  citizens  who 
suffered  spoliations  while  in  pursuit  of  a  lawful  trade 
were  entitled  to  immediate  compensation  at  the  hands 
of  their  own  government,  which  might  then  demand  in- 
demnity from  the  aggressor  ;  and  he  moved  a  committee 
to  take  the  subject  into  consideration. 

Dayton,  who,  though  representing  one  of  the  New 
Jersey  districts,  was  a  member  of  a  mercantile  firm  in 
the  city  of  New  York,  thereupon  moved  to  sequester  all 
debts  due  in  the  United  States  to  British  subjects  as  a 
fund  out  of  which  this  indemnification  might  be  made. 
He  thought  Congress  had  the  right,  by  way  of  retalia- 
tion and  for  the  purpose  of  indemnity,  to  confiscate  all 
British  property,  not  only  that  in  the  hands  of  indi- 
viduals, but  that  also  in  the  public  stocks  ;  but,  for  the 
present,  he  would  limit  his  motion  to  a  sequestration 
of  debts.  It  was  in  vain  to  expect  indemnity  for  the 
spoliations  we  were  suffering,  unless  it  were  compelled 
by  some  such  means.  The  hostile  determination  of  the 
British  was  no  longer  a  secret,  as  the  speech  of  Lord 
Dorchester  showed.  Mercer  and  Smilie  favored  Day- 
ton's resolution,  and  proposed  to  consider  it  at  once. 
Ames  thought  that  go  serious  a  measure  ought  not  to  be 


DAYTON'S   SEQU1ST RATING    RESOLUTIOJN. 

hurried  ;   he  still  cherished  the  hope  of  peace  ;  he  would  CHAPTEH 
struggle  against  war  to  the  last ;   and  he  reprobated  any          ' 
measure  tending  to  drive  the  nation  into  it,  at  least  be-  1794, 
fore  negotiation  had  entirely  failed.      Boudinot  wanted 
time  to  make  up  his  mind.     Tracy  also  argued  for  delay. 
Fie  could  not  tell  what  change  might  be  wrought  in  his 
opinion ;  but  at  present,  the  proposition  before  the  House 
appeared    to    him    an    outrage   upon    common   honesty. 
Smith,  of  South  Carolina,  declared  himself  totally  igno- 
rant, when  he  made  his  suggestion  of  indemnity,  of  any 
design  to  connect  with  it  a  sequestration  of  debts.      He 
thought  the  two  subjects  ought  to  be  kept  entirely  sep- 
arate, as   otherwise   the  idea  of  indemnity  to  our  own 
citizens  might  create  a  very  improper  bias  in  favor  of 
sequestration. 

In  spite  of  all  objections,  Dayton's  resolution  was  im- 
mediately taken  up  in  Committee  of  the  Whole.  Warm- 
ly urged  by  the  mover,  by  Mercer,  and  by  Smith  of 
Maryland,  it  was  opposed  by  Smith  of  South  Carolina 
as  a  step  fatal  to  the  credit  of  the  country,  and  danger- 
ous, also,  from  its  tendency  to  involve  us  in  future  wars. 
Commerce  could  not  be  carried  on  without  creating  debts 
to  foreigners  ;  and  whenever  any  considerable  numbei 
of  these  debtors  became  embarrassed,  they  might  be 
stimulated  to  embroil  us  in  war,  in  hopes  of  avoiding, 
or  at  least  of  delaying,  payment.  Of  those  who  advo- 
cated the  present  measure,  some  had  rejected  with  hor- 
ror the  idea  of  seizing  upon  the  property  of  British  sub- 
jects in  the  public  stocks.  For  his  part,  he  could  see 
no  great  difference  between  the  two  cases.  Once  break 
down  the  barrier  which  protected  debts  generally,  and  it 
was  hard  to  tell  where  to  stop.  He  doubted  mucb  the 
power  of  Congress  thus  to  meddle,  in  time  of  peace,  with 
private  contracts. 


481$  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER       Before  any  question  was  taken,  news  arrived  that  the 

'       British  order  of  November  6th  had  been  superseded  by  a 

1794.  new  one  of  the  8th  of  January,  restricting  the  capture 

March3L  of  French  produce  in  neutral  vessels  to  cases  in  which 
that  produce  belonged  to  Frenchmen,  or  the  vessel  was 
bound  to  France.  It  was"  also  stated,  as  corning  from 
the  British  ministry,  that  no  confiscation  was  to  take 
place  under  the  first  order,  except  in  cases  to  \vhich  the 
second  order  would  apply.  In  consequence  of  this  news, 
the  debate  on  Dayton's  resolution  was  postponed,  and  the 
House  employed  itself  for  several  days  on  the  proposed 
measures  of  defense.  Further  debate  upon  the  seques- 
April  7.  tration,  when  it  again  came  up,  was  superseded  by  a  mo» 
tion,  proposed  by  Clark,  Dayton's  colleague,  to  discon- 
tinue all  commercial  intercourse  with  Great  Britain  and 
her  subjects,  so  far  as  respected  all  articles  of  the  growth 
or  manufacture  of  Great  Britain  or  Ireland,  until  the 
surrender  of  the  Western  posts>  and  due  compensation 
for  all  losses*  and  damages  growing  out  of  British  aggres- 
sions on  our  neutral  rights.  From  the  course  of  the  de- 
bate, it  soon  became  apparent  that  this  resolution  would 
pass  the  House  ;  while,,  from  the  equal  division  of  parties 
in  the  Senate,  a  probability  existed  of  its  passing  there 
also.  If  adopted  as  the  policy  of  the  nation,  it  seemed  to 
lead  directly  to  war. 

As  the  last  resource  for  averting  so  dreadful  a  calam- 
ity, Washington  was  inclined  to  send  a  special  minister 
to  England,  in  hopes  of  bringing  to  an  amicable  arrange- 
ment the  existing  points  of  dispute.  He  had  thought  of 
Hamilton  for  this  mission,  and  had  mentioned  the  sub- 
ject to  Randolph.  At  Hamilton's  special  request,  a  corn- 
niittee  of  the  House  had  been  appointed  to  investigate  his 
management  of  the  Treasury  Department.  This  commit- 
tee,  fifteen  in  number,  including  Giles  and  other  of  his 


PROPOSE!;    MISSION   TO   ENGLAND. 

bitter  enemies,  and  empowered  to  send  for  persons  and  CIIAPTEB 

papers,  had  been  hard  at  work  during  the  session,  but 

without  being  able  to  discover  any  flaws.  Yet,  the  more  1794 
Hamilton's  political  enemies  became  satisfied  that  his 
conduct  was  above  reproach,  the  more  bitter  became  their 
hatred  and  jealousy.  Having  learned  from  Randolph,  or 
judging  from  the  inherent  probability  of  the  thing,  that 
Washington  thought  of  sending  Hamilton  to  England, 
Monroe  addressed  a  letter  to  the  president,  deprecating 
the  appointment  as  not  only  injurious  to  the  public  in- 
terests, but  especially  so  to  Washington  himself,  and 
offering  to  give  his  reasons  in  a  private  interview.  Nor 
was  this  a  mere  individual  movement.  Another  very 
violent  letter  against  Hamilton's  appointment  was  sent  to 
the  president  about  the  same  time  by  one  of  the  Virginia 
members  of  the  House.  Washington  consulted  Randolph 
as  to  these  letters,  the  decorum  of  which  seemed  some- 
what questionable,  especially  in  Monroe's  case,  whose 
duty  as  a  senator  it  rather  seemed  to  be  to  pass  upon  the 
president's  nominations  than,  by  gratuitous  and  unasked 
for  advice,  to  assist  him  in  making  them.  Randolph 
thought  it  would  be  best  to  grant  the  interview,  but 
with  an  intimation  to  Monroe  that  he  must  confine  him- 
self to  facts.  Washington  preferred,  however,  to  send  a 
note,  requesting  Monroe  to  state  in  writing  any  informa- 
tion he  might  have  tending  to  disqualify  Hamilton  for 
the  mission  referred  to — a  request  which  seems  to  have 
given  a  quietus  to  Monroe's  interference. 

However  Hamilton  might  be  otherwise  qualified,  the 
very  hatred  and  jealousy  of  which  he  was  the  object 
were  decisive  against  the  policy  of  appointing  him.  Not 
only  might  they  endanger  his  confirmation  by  the  Sen- 
ate, but  any  treaty  that  might  be  formed  would  be  the  less 
palatable  for  his  agency  in  it  Under  these  circumstan- 


488  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

JHAPTER  ces,  Washington  turned  his  eyes  on  Chief  Justice  Jay 
'       In  point  of  Revolutionary  services,  only   the  president 

1794.  himself  stood  upon  higher  ground  ;  nor  could  any  person, 
except  the  vice-president,  pretend  to  a  place  upon  the 
same  level.  In  lofty  disinterestedness,  in  unyielding  in- 
tegrity, in  superiority  to  the  illusions  of  passion,  no  one 
of  the  great  men  of  the  Revolution  approached  so  near 
to  Washington.  Profound  knowledge  of  the  law,  in- 
flexible sense  of  justice,  and  solidity  of  judgment,  had 
especially  marked  him  out  for  the  office  which  he  held. 
Having  played  a  very  active  part  in  a  state,  the  seat  of 
hostilities  during  the  whole  struggle  of  the  Revolution, 
he  knew  what  war  was,  and  dreaded  it  accordingly.  Ono 
of  the  ministers  who  negotiated  the  treaty  of  peace,  and 
afterward  Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs,  he  was  perfectly 
familiar  with  all  the  grounds  of  controversy  as  between 
the  two  nations.  Though  on  questions  of  principle  per- 
fectly unyielding,  in  matters  of  interest  and  expediency 
he  knew  the  wisdom  of  giving  up  a  part  rather  than  to 
risk  the  loss  of  the  whole.  The  only  serious  objection  to 
his  appointment  was  his  judicial  station ;  but  even  that 
gave  an  additional  dignity  to  the  mission,  and  in  a  crisis 
so  important  the  objection  lost  much  of  its  weight. 

Clark's  resolutions,  sustained  by  the  whole  force  of 
the  opposition,  and  by  a  few  Federalists  led  on  by  Day- 
ton, passed  the  House  in  committee  by  sixty-one  votes 
in  the  affirmative.  Such  was  the  state  of  matters  when 

Auril  16.  the  president  sent  to  the  Senate  his  nomination  of  Jay 
as  special  envoy  to  England,  with  a  message  expressing 
undiminishcd  confidence  in  Thomas  Pinckney,  the  resi- 
dent minister,  but  recommending  the  proposed  extraor- 
dinary mission  as  demonstrating  to  the  world  a  reluctance 
at  hostilities,  and  solicitude  for  a  friendly  adjustment. 

April  19.  The  nomination  was  confirmed,  not  without  some  oppo- 


INCREASE    OF    THE    ARMY.  439 

sition,  in  which  the  senators  from  Virginia  took  the  lead,  CHAPTEL 

The  mission,   they  insisted,  was  unnecessary  ;    and,  if 

necessary,  Jay  ought  not  to  be  appointed  without  first  1794 
resigning  his  office  of  chief  justice. 

Notwithstanding  this  appointment,  Clark's  resolutions 
were  still  pressed  in  the  House,  and  were  carried  fifty- 
eight  to  thirty-eight ;  and  a  bill  founded  upon  them  was 
presently  passed  by  a  similar  majority.  The  argument  A  pi  il  25. 
in  favor  of  this  bill  was,  that  a  suspension  of  trade  would 
give  greater  weight  to  the  negotiation.  The  Federalists 
did  not  see  the  thing  in  that  light ;  and  the  bill  was  de- 
feated in  the  Senate  ;  but  only  by  the  casting  vote  of  the 
vice-president.  Insisting  that  not  suspension  of  trade, 
but  warlike  preparations,  were  the  true  means  of  backing 
up  the  negotiation,  the  Federalists  pressed  for  the  twen- 
ty-five thousand  additional  regulars,  in  favor  of  which 
the  committee  had  reported.  But  the  very  persons  most 
eager  for  war  with  Great  Britain  had  a  great  dread  of 
standing  armies,  as  tending  to  strengthen  the  hands  of 
the  administration,  and  by  great  efforts  on  the  part  of 
the  opposition  leaders  this  proposition  was  voted  down. 
Acts  were  passed  for  raising  the  proposed  regiment  of 
artillery,  and  for  detaching  the  eighty  thousand  minute 
men  ;  but  these  last  formed  a  mere  array  on  paper,  add- 
ing nothing  to  the  real  force  at  the  disposal  of  the  gov- 
ernment. 

The  arrival  of  news  from  the  West  Indies  that  many 
of  the  vessels  seized  under  the  order  of  the  sixth  of  No- 
vember had  been  already  released,  with  accounts  also 
from  England  of  Lord  Grenville's  declarations  in  the 
British  Parliament  that  he  wished  to  preserve  harmony 
with  America,  and  to  obliterate,  by  acts  of  friendship  a.Tid 
good-will,  every  trace  of  former  animosities,  together 
with  his  indignant  disavowal  that  the  British  authorities 


490  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  had  stimulated  the  Indians  to  hostilities,  tended  some* 

*'       what  to  subdue  the   tone  of  feeling,   and   to  encourage 

1794.  hopes  among  those  more  friendly  to  Great  Britain  that 

Jay's  mission  might  prove  successful.      He  was  attended 

May  13  to  the  place  of  embarkation  by  a  great  concourse  of  cit- 
izens, to  whom  he  returned  his  thanks  in  a  short  speech, 
expressing  his  determination  to  leave  no  means  untried 
to  secure  the  blessings  of  peace. 

In  consequence  of  the  application  of  the  French  gov- 
ernment for  the  recall  of  Gouverneur  Morris,  it  had  be- 
come necessary  to  appoint  another  minister  to  that  country. 
Washington  had  desired  that  Jay,  after  finishing  the 
business  of  his  extraordinary  mission,  should,  in  case  of 
a  favorable  result,  remain  in  England  as  permanent  min- 
ister, in  which  case  he  proposed  to  send  Thomas  Pinck- 
ney  to  France.  But  to  this  Jay  would  not  agree.  The 
place  was  then  offered  to  Chancellor  Livingston — a  selec- 
tion, no  doubt,  prompted  by  a  desire  to  satisfy  the  special 
friends  of  France,  Livingston  and  his  numerous  and  in- 
fluential connections  in  New  York  having  arranged  them- 
selves on  that  side  of  the  question.  On  Livingston's  re- 
fusal, knowing  from  Jefferson's  former  repeated  assur- 
ances that  Madison  would  decline  it,  Washington  con- 
cluded to  offer  the  appointment  to  Monroe,  who  did  not 
hesitate  to  accept  it,  but  who  unfortunately  carried  into 
his  new  position  all  that  spirit  of  hostility  to  the  policy 
of  the  administration  by  which1  his  late  political  career 
had  been  distinguished.  John  Q.  Adams,  son  of  the 
vice-president,  was  soon  after  sent  as  minister  to  the 
Hague,  to  supply  Short's  place,  who  had  been  sent  to 
aid  and  spur  up  Carmichael  at  Madrid.  The  young 
Adams  was  indebted  for  this  appointment  to  some  arti- 
cles in  a  Boston  paper  on  Genet's  proceedings,  which 
had  attracted  the  president's  attention. 


APPROPRIATIONS.     NEW   TAXES.  491 

The  appropriations  for  the  service  of  the  current  year,  CHAPTER 

exclusive  of  the  interest  on  the  public  debt,  but  including 

the  million  of  dollars  to  purchase  peace  with  Algiers,  and  1794. 
the  extra  appropriations  for  military  and  naval  purposes, 
amounted  to  upward  of  five  millions  of  dollars  ;  making 
the  total  sum  required  for  the  service  of  the  year  some- 
what more  than  eight  millions.  Two  temporary  loans 
had  been  authorized  of  a  million  each  ;  but  the  increase 
of  the  military  establishment,  the  commencement  of  a 
navy,  and  the  other  extraordinary  expenses,  would  re- 
quire some  permanent  addition  to  the  revenue. 

The  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  after  consulting 
with  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  through  a  sub-com- 
mittee, conformed  to  his  suggestions  in  recommending 
certain  additional  duties  on  imports,  with  taxes  on  car- 
riages, on  sales  at  auction,  on  snuff,  on  refined  sugars, 
and  on  licenses  for  retailing  wines  and  foreign  spirits, 
by  all  which  they  expected  to  raise  the  annual  sum  of 
S992,500.  They  proposed,  in  addition,  a  land  tax,  to 
produce  $750,000  ;  but  this  latter  tax  found  no  favor 
with  the  House.  The  other  propositions,  brought  for- 
ward in  separate  bills,  lest  a  combination  of  objections 
might  defeat  the  whole,  were  finally  carried;  though  not 
without  a  good  deal  of  opposition,  and,  in  the  case  of  the 
duties  on  snuff  and  refined  sugar,  some  violent  remon- 
strances from  the  parties  more  directly  interested,  against- 
the  policy  of  taxing  the  infant  manufactures  of  America. 
The  carriage  tax  was  also  violently  opposed  as  unconsti- 
tutional, the  pretense  set  up  being  that  it  was  a  direct 
tax,  and  ought  therefore  to  be  apportioned  according  to 
the  federal  ratio.  This  question  was  ultimately  carried 
to  the  Supreme  Court,  but  they  did  not  sustain  the  ob- 
jection. 

As  finally  passed,  these  acts  imposed  on  all  carriages 


492  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  for  the  conveyance  of  persons  a  tax  of  from  one  to  ten 
.  dollars  each  ;  five  dollars  annually  upon  every  retailer  of 

1794.  wines  and  foreign  spirits,  licensed  inn-holders  excepted  • 
a  quarter  of  a  dollar  on  every  hundred  dollars  of  the  pro- 
ceeds of  sales  at  auction  of  lands,  houses,  ships,  and 
farming  stock  and  tools,  and  twice  as  much  on  sales  of 
other  goods  ;  eight  cents  per  pound  on  snuff  of  domestic 
manufacture  ;  two  cents  per  pound  on  domestic  refined 
sugars ;  with  import  duties,  in  addition  to  the  existing 
ones,  of  twelve  cents  per  pound  on  snuff,  four  cents  per 
pound  on  manufactured  tobacco  and  refined  sugar,  three 
cents  per  pound  on  cheese,  two  cents  on  cocoa,  one  cent 
on  coffee  and  clayed  or  lump  sugar,  half  a  cent  a  bushel 
on  coal,  twenty-five  cents  per  pair  on  boots,  and  five 
cents  on  shoes ;  with  an  addition  of  from  two  and  a  half 
to  five  per  cent,  on  most  of  the  articles  charged  with  ad 
valorem  duties.  The  additions  to  the  impost  were  to  be 
continued  till  the  beginning  of  the  year  1797;  the  in- 
ternal duties  were  to  remain  in  force  for  two  years,  and 
were  to  be  collected  by  the  officers  already  appointed 
under  the  excise  act  on  domestic  spirits.  The  collection 
of  this  latter  duty  was  now  regularly  enforced  every 
where  except  in  Western  Pennsylvania ;  and  a  new  act 
of  the  present  session  made  additional  provisions  toward 
its  complete  enforcement. 

Soon  after  his  arrival,  Fauohet  had  renewed  the  ap- 
plications of  his  predecessor  for  an  advance  of  money  on 
the  credit  of  the  debt  due  to  France.  The  president  re- 
ferred this  application  to  Congress,  and  the  House  passed 
a  bill  authorizing  the  application  to  that  purpose  of  the 
money  borrowed  in  Holland  for  the  use  of  the  sinking 
fund  ;  but  this  bill  was  thrown  out  in  the  Senate.  The 
installments  already  due  to  France  had  been  entirely 
paid  up  ;  and,  apart  £om  the  objection  that  it  might  be 


SETTLEMENT  OF  REVOLUTIONARY  ACJOUJNTS.  493 

esteemed  a  breach  of  neutrality,  the  state  of  the  treasu-  CHAPTEB 
ry  and  the  doubtful  prospect  of  future  loans  in  Europe          ' 
were  strong  reasons  against  any  such  advance.  1794. 

Tn  the  course  of  the  session,  the  final  statement,  as 
made  up  under  the  acts  for  that  purpose,  of  the  pecuni- 
ary account  current  between  the  Confederacy  and  its 
members,  including  the  assumption  of  the  state  debts, 
was  laid  before  Congress.  It  appeared  by  this  state- 
ment that  certain  states  had  claims  on  the  Union  for  ad- 
vances beyond  their  proportion,  while  an  equal  total 
amount,  was  due  from  certain  other  states,  as  follows  : 


Creditor  States. 

New  Hampshire $     75,055 

Massachusetts 1,248,801 

Connecticut 619,121 

Rhode  Island 299,611 

New  Jersey 49,030 

South  Carolina 1,205,978 

Georgia 19,988 

$3,517,584 


Debtor  States. 

New  York $2,074, 84o 

Pennsylvania 76,709 

Delaware.. 612,428 

Maryland 151,640 

Virginia 100,879 

North  Carolina .,  501,082 

$3,517,584 


By  the  act  under  which  these  balances  had  been  struck, 
the  creditor  states  were  entitled  to  have  their  claims 
funded  on  the  same  terms  with  the  other  assumed  state 
debt,  but  without  transferability.  This  funding,  by  an 
act  of  the  present  session,  was  to  take  place  on  the  first 
of  January,  1795,  including  interest  up  to  that  period. 
At  the  next  session  the  stock  was  made  transferable,  and 
the  states  which  held  it  were  thus  enabled  to  pay  off  the 
greater  part  of  their  remaining  Revolutionary  debt.  The 
total  amount  funded  under  the  original  assumption,  the 
quota  assigned  to  several  of  the  states  having  exceeded  the 
total  amount  of  their  debts,  was  $18.271,814;  making 
the  whole  amount  ultimately  assumed  $22,492,888. 

Hamilton  had  foreseen  the  difficulty  of  extracting  pay- 
ment from  the  debtor  states ;  and  by  his  plan  of  settle- 
ment, as  originally  proposed,  none  wotild  have  been  re- 
quired. It  had  been  his  idea  to  add  to  the  balances  due  to 


494  HISTORY    OF    THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  creditor  states  their  share  of  the  amount  due  from 
vi 

the  others.      But  this  plan,  which  would  have  made  the 

1794.  entire  settlement  thoroughly  equitable,  had  been  reject- 
ed by  Congress  as  tending  to  add  to  the  public  debt. 
Though  the  subject  was  repeatedly  brought  before  Con- 
gress in  the  course  of  the  next  ten  years,  no  means  were 
ever  found  of  inducing  the  debtor  states  to  pay ;  nor  was 
any  thing  ever  obtained,  except  a  small  amount  from 
New  York,  expended  by  that  state  on  fortifications. 

The  opponents  of  slavery  and  the  slave  trade,  not  dis- 
couraged by  their  past  experience,  had  again  presented 
themselves  before  Congress,  and  now  with  better  suc- 
cess. Upon  the  proposal  of  the  New  York  Society  for 
the  Abolition  of  Slavery,  a  Convention  had  met  at  Phila- 
delphia, on  the  first  day  of  the  year,  of  delegates  from 
all  the  Abolition  Societies  in  the  country — a  meeting 
which  continued  to  be  repeated  for  several  years  follow 
ing.  A  memorial  was  agreed  upon  by  this  Convention, 
carefully  worded,  so  as  to  avoid  constitutional  objections, 
praying  Congress  to  do  whatever  they  could  for  the  sup- 
pression of  the  slave  trade.  Together  with  a  number  of 
Quaker  petitions,  this  memorial  was  referred  to  a  select 
committee,  and  the  bill  which  they  reported  seems  to 
have  passed  without  opposition.  It  prohibited  the  fitting 
out  of  ships  in  the  United  States  for  supplying  any  for- 
eign country  with  slaves  under  penalty  of  forfeiture  of 
the  vessel  and  a  fine  of  $2000. 

During  the  late  struggle  carried  on  in  behalf  of  the 
neutrality  of  the  United  States  by  the  president  against 
Genet  and  his  adherents,  very  little  support  had  been 
derived  from  any  statute  provisions.  The  judges  had 
declared  that,  as  treaties  were  the  supreme  law  of  the 
land,  any  acts  of  hostility  against  nations  with  whom  the 
United  States  were  at  peace,  committed  or  prepared  foi 


WARLIKE  ENTERPRISES  PKUMJBITED.       49^ 

within  their  jurisdiction,  were  criminal,  and  might  be  in-  CIIAPTEP 
dieted  and  punished.      But  in  the  acquittal  of  Henfield.  ______ 

the  jury  had  taken  it  upon  themselves  to  disregard  this  1794. 
opinion.  Several  of  the  district  courts,  that  of  Pennsyl- 
vania among  the  others,  had  declined  to  take  any  juris- 
liction  of  cases  in  which  restoration  of  prizes  was  claimed 
on  the  ground  of  illegal  capture.  In  their  opinion,  these 
were  not  mere  questions  of  ownership,  but  involved  po- 
litical relations,  of  which  the  decision  belonged  to  the 
government,  and  not  to  the  courts.  The  president  had 
thus  been  driven  to  a  direct  exertion  of  powrer,  or,  rather, 
an  indirect  exertion  of  it,  in  calling  out  detachments  of 
militia  through  the  agency  of  the  governors  of  the  states 
— a  resource  the  more  delicate,  as  these  governors  did 
not  always  sympathize  with  his  political  views.  He  had 
urged  the  necessity  of  legislation  on  this  subject  in  his 
opening  speech,  and  toward  the  close  of  the  session  he  Maj  w 
enforced  it  by  a  special  message,  inclosing  a  correspond- 
ence with  Governor  Shelby  respecting  the  enterprise  on 
foot  in  that  state  for  an  expedition  under  French  com- 
missions against  Louisiana.  Shelby  started  many  dif- 
ficulties as  to  his  right  to  interfere,  and  emphatically  ex- 
pressed his  disinclination  to  do  so  against  "  men  whom 
he  considered  as  friends  and  brethren,"  against  the  King 
of  Spain,  whom  he  viewed  as  •'<  an  enemy  and  a  tyrant." 
Though  hitherto  delayed  for  want  of  money,  this  enter- 
prise might  be  pushed  again  at  any  time.  The  ener- 
getic interference  of  the  Legislature  of  South  Corolina 
had  broken  up  the  organization  in  that  state  for  invad- 
ing Florida.  But  that  undertaking  was  by  no  means 
given  up.  The  parties  concerned  in  it  had  begun  to  col- 
lect again  in  the  Creek  nation,  and  further  action  might 
become  necessary  in  that  quarter. 

A  bill  embracing  this  whole  subject  had  already  passed 


49C>  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  Senate  by  the  casting  vote  of  the  vice-president.      It 
'      contained,  also  a  provision  prohibiting  the  sale  of  prizes 

1794.  within  the  United  States,  a  practice  which  had  hitherto 
been  allowed  out  of  courtesy  to  the  French,  but  to  which 
they  were  not  thought  to  be  entitled  under  the  treaty. 
This  bill  encountered  in  the  House  a  very  violent  oppo- 
sition; but  by  a  very  great  triumph  on  the  part  of  the 

Jane  5.  administration  it  finally  passed,  with  the  exception  of 
the  clause  respecting  the  sale  of  prizes. 

By  this  important  act,  which  still  remains  in  force,  all 
persons  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  them- 
selves entering,  or  enlisting  others  into  the  military  serv- 
ice of  any  foreign  prince  or  state,  whether  by  sea  or  land, 
are  made  liable  to  a  fine  of  $1000,  and  imprisonment  not 
exceeding  three  years  ;  but  those  enlisted  may  avoid  the 
penalty  by  information  lodged  with  any  magistrate  lead- 
ing to  the  conviction  of  those  by  whom  they  had  been 
enlisted. 

The  fitting  out  of  cruisers  in  the  United  States  for 
the  service  of  any  foreign  power,  or  the  issuing  commis- 
sions to  such  vessels,  or  the  setting  on  foot  of  any  mili- 
tary expedition  against  any  foreign  power  with  whom 
the.  United  States  were  at  peace,  is  made  punishable, 
at  the  discretion  of  the  court,  by  fine  not  exceeding 
$5000,  and  imprisonment  not  exceeding  three  years, 
with  forfeiture  of  the  vessel.  Increasing  the  armament 
of  any  foreign  ship  or  cruiser  is  subject  to  similar,  but 
less  penalties.  Jurisdiction  is  expressly  given  to  the 
District  Courts  in  all  cases  of  capture  within  the  wa- 
ters of  the  United  States ;  and  in  all  cases  of  violation 
of  this  law,  or  of  resistance  by  any  cruiser  or  armed  ves- 
sel to  the  process  of  the  United  States  Courts,  the  pres- 
ident, or  those  \vhom  he  may  empower,  are  authorized 
to  employ  the  federal  land  and  naval  forces,  as  well  as 


EMBARGO.  497 

the   militia,  -in  enforcing  the  authority  of  the   govern-  CHAPTER 
ment.  

As  an  additional  means  toward  this  same  end,  the  pres-  1794. 
tdent  was  authorized  to  build  or  purchase  a  number  of 
vessels,  to  be  equipped  as  galleys  for  harbor  service.  The 
sum  of  $80,000  was  appropriated  to  this  object,  which 
seems,  however,  not  to  have  been  carried  into  effect,  as 
the  money  was  reappropriated  at  the  next  session  toward 
tae  completion  of  the  frigates. 

At  the  end  of  sixty  days  the  embargo  had  been  suf- 
fered to  expire :  but  a  temporary  act  authorized  the  pres- 
ident to  renew  it  at  any  time  before  the  next  session  .of 
Congress,  which  was  fixed  by  another  act  for  the  first 
Monday  of  November 
IV.— 1 1 


49W  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

INSURRECTION  IN  WESTERN  PENNSYLVANIA.  WAYNE'S 
VICTORY  OVER  THE  INDIANS.  SECOND  SESSION  OF  THE 
THIRD  CONGRESS. 

CHAPTER  V  ERY  shortly  after  the  adjournment  of  Congress, 
steps  were  taken,  under  the  new  act  on  that  subject, 

1794.  f°r  enforcing  the  collection  of  the  excise  duty  in  the 
western  counties  of  Pennsylvania.  Indictments  were 
found  against  a  number  of  distillers  who  had  neglected 
to  enter  their  stills ;  and  thirty  warrants  were  issued, 
which  the  marshal  of  the  district  undertook  to  serve 
He  succeeded  as  to  twenty-nine  of  them  ;  but  as,  in  com- 
pany with  General  Neville,  the  inspector  of  the  district, 
he  was  going  to  serve  the  thirtieth,  they  were  inter- 
cepted by  a  party  of  armed  men,  who  fired  upon  them, 
and  compelled  them  to  fly  for  their  lives.  The  next 

July  16.  morning  Neville's  house,  in  the  vicinity  of  Pittsburg, 
was  attacked  by  an  armed  party  of  forty  or  more.  In 
expectation  of  some  such  violence,  the  windows  had  been 
barricaded  ;  Neville's  negroes  and  other  servants  had 
been  armed ;  and  the  assailants  were  repulsed  with  the 
loss  of  six  men  wounded,  one  of  them  mortally.  Nev- 
ille immediately  applied  for  protection  to  two  magis- 
trates and  militia  officers  of  the  county.  Upon  their 
declaration  that,  however  willing,  it  was  utterly  out  of 
their  power  to  give  it,  he  obtained  a  detachment  of  eleven 
men  from  the  neighboring  garrison  of  Fort  Pitt.  The 

Jniy  17.  next  morning  the  assailants  reappeared,  five  hundred 
strong,  led  on  by  one  John  Holcroft,  who,  under  the  as- 


WHISKY    INSURRECTION  49^ 

sumed  name  of  Tom  the  Tinker,  had  been  deeply  con-  CHAPTEP. 

VII. 

cerned  in  stirring  up  previous  outrages  against  officers 

who  attempted  to  enforce  the  law,  and  distillers  who  were  1794. 
disposed  to  submit  to  it.  On  the  approach  of  this  force, 
Neville  escaped  from  the  house,  leaving  his  kinsman. 
Major  Fitzpatrick,  with  the  soldiers,  to  make  such  de- 
fense or  capitulation  as  might  seem  expedient.  The  as- 
sailants had  appointed  a  committee  of  three  as  directors 
of  the  enterprise,  and  they  had  chosen  as  commander 
one  M;Farlane,  formerly  a  lieutenant  in  the  Continental 
service.  The  surrender  of  Neville  was  demanded,  and, 
on  information  that  he  was  gone,  the  admission  of  six 
men  to  search  the  house  for  the  papers  connected  with 
his  office.  This  being  refused,  a  flag  was  sent  for  the 
women  to  leave  the  house,  soon  after  which  an  attack 
was  commenced.  M'Farlarie  was  killed  and  several 
other  of  the  assailants  were  wounded  ;  but  they  suc- 
ceeded in  setting  fire  to  the  out-houses,  and,  as  the 
flames  threatened  to  spread,  the  garrison,  three  of  whom 
had  been  wounded,  found  themselves  obliged  to  surren- 
der. The  men  were  dismissed  without  injury,  but  all 
the  buildings  were  burned  to  the  ground.  The  marshal 
and  the  inspector's  son,  who  came  up  just  after  the  sur- 
render, were  made  prisoners.  The  marshal  was  sub- 
jected to  a  good  deal  of  abuse,  and  was  only  dismissed 
after  a  promise,  extorted  by  threats  of  instant  death, 
and  guaranteed  by  young  Neville,  not  to  attempt  to 
serve  any  more  processes  west  of  the  mountains.  The 
next  day  a  message  was  sent  to  Pittsburg,  where  the  ju:v  j3 
inspector  and  the  marshal  had  taken  refuge,  requiring 
the  one  to  resign  his  office,  and  the  other  to  give  up  the 
warrants  in  his  possession.  This  they  refused  to  do. 
The  means  of  protection  at  Pittsburg  were  small ;  and 
as  the  roads  eastward  would  most  likely  be  guarded,  as 


500  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  only  means  of  escape,  they  embarked  on  the  Ohio- 
,  descended  as  far  as  Marietta,  and  thence  set  out  by  land 

1794.  for  Philadelphia,  the  greater  part  of  the  way  through  a 
wilderness. 

The  next  decided  step  seems  to   have  been  a  public 
Tuly  23.  meeting,   held  at  Mingo  Creek   meeting-house,   in   the 

neighborhood  of  which  most  of  the  late  rioters  resided. 

• 

Bradford  and  Marshall  were  both  present ;  also  Bracken- 
ridge,  a  lawyer  of  Pittsburg,  a  leading  member  of  the 
Democratic  club  of  that  vicinity,  who  attended,  accord- 
ing to  his  own  account,  by  special  invitation.  Bradford 
was  for  making  common  cause  with  the  rioters.  Brack- 
onridge  suggested  that,  however  justifiable  in  itself,  their 
oonduct  was  nevertheless  illegal,  and  that  it  was  bad 
policy  to  draw  into  the  same  position  those  who  might 
otherwise  act  as  mediators.  It  was  finally  agreed  to  call 
a  convention  of  delegates  from  ftll  the  townships  west  of 
the  mountains,  and  from  the  adjoining  counties  of  Mary- 
land and  Virginia,  to  meet  in  three  weeks  at  Parkinson's 
Ferry,  on  the  Monongahela. 

July  26  Two  or  three  days  after  this  preliminary  meeting, 
anxious  to  ascertain  how  the  late  proceedings  had  been 
represented,  Bradford  caused  the  mail  from  Pittsburg 
to  Philadelphia  to  be  intercepted.  Letters  were  found 
in  it,  from  young  Neville  and  others,  giving  accounts, 
by  no  means  satisfactory  to  the  parties  concerned,  of  the 
burning  of  the  inspector's  house,  and  of  the  late  meet- 
ing at  Mingo  Creek.  Without  waiting  for  the  proposed 
convention,  a  circular,  signed  by  Bradford,  Marshall, 

July  28.  and  four  or  five  others,  was  forthwith  addressed  to  the  of- 
ficers of  the  militia  of  the  western  counties,  stating  that, 
by  the  interception  of  the  mail,  important  secrets  had 
been  discovered,  which  made  necessary  an  expression  ot 
sentiment,  not  by  words,  but  by  actions.  The  officers 


WHISKY   INSURRECTION.  5()j 

\venj  therefore   called  upon  to  muster  as  many  volun-  CHAITER 
leers  as  they  could,  to  assemble  on  the  first  of  August          ' 
at  the  usual  place  of  rendezvous,  at  Braddock's  Field,  on  1794. 
the  Monongahela,  with  arms  and  accouterments,  and  pro- 
visions for  four  days. 

Meanwhile,  the  mail,  with  its  contents,  except  the  in- 
tercepted letters,  was  sent  back  to  Pittsburg,  and  the  July  81. 
citizens  of  that   town,  to  pacify  the  excitement,  went 
through  the  form  of  expelling  the  obnoxious  letter- writers. 

The  summons  to  the  militia,  though  it  had  only  three 
days  to  circulate,  and  that  among  a  population  scattered 
over  a  wide  extent  of  country,  drew  together  not  less 
than  seven  thousand  armed  men.  Many  afterward  al-  Aug.  . 
leged  that  they  went  out  of  curiosity,  and  others,  that 
their  sole  intention  was  to  prevent  mischief ;  and  this 
was  certainly  the  case  with  some  who  were  present, 
among  whom  was  Ross,  the  United  States  senator.  But 
the  very  fact  of  this  prompt  obedience  to  their  orders 
could  not  but  inspire  the  leaders  with  a  high  idea  of  their 
power  and  influence,  while  it  tended  also  to  increase  the 
mischief,  by  giving  the  impression  to  the  public  at  large 
of  a  general  unanimity  of  sentiment.  Colonel  Cook,  one 
of  the  judges  of  Fayette  county,  a  member  of  the  first 
popular  convention  held  in  Pennsylvania  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Revolution,  distinguished  for  his  op- 
position to  the  excise,  having  repeatedly  presided  at  the 
public  meetings  called  to  protest  against  it,  was  chosen 
president  of  this  armed  assembly.  Albert  Gallatin,  the 
late  rejected  senator,  was  appointed  secretary.  Brad- 
ford, to  whom  every  body  cringed,  assumed  the  charac- 
ter of  majot  general,  and  reviewed  the  trooos.  A  com- 
mittee, to  whom  matters  of  business  were  referred,  re- 
solved that  two  more  citizens  of  Pittsburg  si  ould  be  ex- 
pelled. The  troops  then  marched  into  the  town,  and 


,502  HISTORY   OF  THE    UNlTEtt  STATES. 

CHAPTER  after  receiving  refreshments,  which  the  terrified  inhabit* 

VII. 

ants  hastened  to  furnish,  the  greater  part  marched  out 
1794.  again.  The  more  orderly  dispersed;  but  several  parties 
kept  together,  one  of  which  destroyed  a  bam  belonging 
to  Major  Fitzpatrick,  and  another  attempted,  but  with- 
out success,  to  burn  his  house  in  Pittsburgh 

It  was  Bradford's  design,  in  calling  this  armed  body 
together,  to  get  possession  of  Fort  Pitt,  and  the  arms  and 
ammunition  deposited  in  it ;  but,  finding  most  of  the 
principal  militia  officers  unwilling  to  co-operate,  that  de- 
sign was  abandoned.  Immediately  after  this  armed  as- 
sembly, the  remaining  excise  officers  were  expelled  even 
from  those  districts  in  which  the  opposition  had  hitherto 
been  less  violent.  Many  outrages  were  committed,  some 
of  the  officers  being  cruelly  treated,  and  their  houses 
burned.  The  same  spirit  began  to  spread  into  the  bor- 
dering counties  of  Virginia,  and,  as  the  day  for  the  meet- 
ing at  Parkinson's  Ferry  approached,  things  assumed  a 
very  threatening  aspect.  However  opposition  to  the  ex- 
cise law  might  have  been  countenanced  by  the  great 
body  of  the  population,  including  the  principal  political 
leaders,  the  measures  of  actual  resistance  to  it  had  been 
chiefly  in  the  hands  of  a  few  violent  and  reckless  indi- 
viduals, who,  sometimes  by  outrages  and  sometimes  by 
threats,  had  kept  in  awe  not  only  the  excise  officers,  but 
such  of  the  distillers  also  as  were  disposed  to  submit  to 
the  payment  of  the  tax.  This  reign  of  terror  was  now 
extended  and  completely  established.  No  one  dared  utter 
a  word  against  the  recent  proceedings  for  fear  of  banish- 
ment, personal  violence,  or  the  destruction  of  his  property. 
News  of  the  burning  of  Neville's  house,  of  the  meet- 
ing at  Mingo  Creek,  and  of  the  robbery  of  the  mail  soon 
July  31.  reached  Philadelphia.  In  the  eyes  of  the  president  and 
his  cabinet,  these  incidents  assrmecl  a  very  serious  char- 


WHISKY    JNSURKECTIUiv  593 

acter.      With  the  arrival  of  news  of  the  great  triumphs  CHAPTER 

achieved  by  the  French  arms,  and  of  the  subsidence  of 

internal  revolt  under  the  terrible  discipline  of  the  Reign  1794 
of  Terror,  the  Democratic  societies,  recovering  from  the 
temporary  check  growing  out  of  the  conduct  of  Genet 
and  the  disasters  of  the  French  republic,  had  become 
more  vigorous  and  violent  than  ever,  and  very  unsparing 
in  their  attacks  upon  the  policy  of  the  federal  admin- 
istration. The  Charleston  society,  on  their  own  appli- 
cation, and  on  motion  of  the  celebrated  Collot  d'Herbois, 
had  been  recognized  by  the  Jacobin  Club  of  Paris  as 
an  affiliated  branch.  The  Democratic  society  of  Wash- 
ington county,  one  of  those  involved  in  the  present  dis- 
turbances, had  recently  passed  strong  resolutions,  cop- 
ied from  those  of  Kentucky,  on  the  subject  of  the  nav- 
igation of  the  Mississippi.  The  French  agents  were 
still  active  in  Kentucky,  and  a  secret  understanding  was 
suspected  between  all  these  parties.  The  Democratic 
society  of  Philadelphia  hastened  indeed  to  pass  resolu- 
tions, in  which,  after  execrating  the  excise  law,  they 
declared,  however,  their  disapproval  of  violent  resistance. 
But  no  great  faith  was  placed  in  their  sincerity,  or  in 
the  concurrence  of  the  affiliated  branches.  In  a  cotem- 
porary  letter  to  Governor  Lee,  of  Virginia,  Washington 
speaks  of  the  leaders  of  these  societies — the  great  body 
of  the  members  knowing  little  of  the  real  plan — as  art- 
ful and  designing  men,  whose  great  object  was,  under  a 
display  of  popular  and  fascinating  guises,  to  destroy  all 
confidence  in  the  administration,  and  likely,  if  not  coun- 
teracted and  their  real  character  exposed,  to  shake  the 
government  to  its  very  foundation. 

In  the  present  inflammatory  state  of  the  public  mind, 
the  resistance  to  the  laws  in  Western  Pennsylvania,  if 
not  immediately  checked,  might  find  many  imitators 


504  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  Hamilton,  Knox,  and  IBradford  advised  that  the  militia 

VII 

'  be  called  out  at  once.  But  upon  a  suggestion  to  Gov- 
1794.  ernor  Mifflin  to  that  effect,  he  expressed  apprehensions 
that  a  resort  to  force  might  inflame  and  augment  the  ex- 
isting opposition,  and,  by  connecting  with  it  other  causes 
of  complaint,  might  produce  such  an  excitement  as  to 
make  it  necessary  to  call  in  aid  from  the  neighboring 
states — a  step  by  which  jealousy  and  discontent  svould  be 
still  further  aggravated.  He  even  questioned  whether  the 
militia  would  "pay  a  passive  obedience  to  the  mandates 
of  the  government."  He  doubted  also  his  own  authority 
to  make  a  call ;  for,  whatever  might  be  the  case  with 
the  federal  judiciary,  it  did  not  yet  appear  that  the  or- 
dinary course  of  the  state  law  was  not  able  to  punish 
the  rioters  and  to  maintain  order.  He  was  therefore 
disposed  to  be  content  for  the  present  with  a  circular 
letter  already  dispatched  to  the  state  officers  of  the  west- 
ern counties,  expressive  of  his  indignation  at  the  recent 
occurrences,  and  requiring  the  exertion  of  their  utmost 
authority  to  suppress  the  tumults  and  to  punish  the  of- 
fenders. 

Mifflin's  refusal  removed  all  pretense  for  alleging  that 
opportunity  had  not  been  afforded  to  the  State  of  Penn- 
sylvania to  vindicate  the  authority  of  the  laws  by  her 
own  means.  As  the  case  seemed  to  require  immediate 
interference,  Washington  resolved  to  take  the  responsi- 
bility on  himself,  and  to  act  with  vigor.  A  certificate 
was  obtained,  as  the  statute  required,  from  a  judge  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  that  in  the  counties  of  Washington 
and  Allegany  the  execution  of  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  was  obstructed  by  combinations  too  powerful  to 
be  suppressed  by  the  ordinary  course  of  judicial  proceed- 
ing. 7.  ings.  A  proclamation  was  put  forth  requiring  these  op- 
posers  of  the  laws  to  desist,  and  a  requisition  was  issued 


WHISKY   INSURRECTION. 


to  the  governors  of  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Maryland,  CHAPTE* 
and  Virginia  for  a  body  of  13,000  men,  raised  afterward  _  '_ 
to  15,000.      The  insurgent  counties  could  bring  into  the  1794 
field  about  16,000  fighting  rnsn.     It  v/as  judged  expe- 
dient to  send  a  force  such  as  would  quite  discourage  any 
resistance. 

This  calling  out  the  militia  was  not  entirely  ap- 
proved by  Randolph,  the  secretary  of  state.  He  seemed 
to  apprehend,  with  Mifflin,  that  an  attempt  to  enforce 
the  authority  of  government  might  lead  to  a  general  con- 
vulsion ;  and  he  appeared  to  be  greatly  impressed  by  a 
letter  of  Brackenridge's  to  a  friend  in  Philadelphia,  com- 
municated to  the  cabinet,  in  which  the  writer  maintained 
the  ability  of  the  western  counties  to  defend  themselves, 
suggesting  the  indisposition  of  the  midland  counties  to 
allow  the  march  of  troops  for  the  West,  the  possibility  of 
application  to  Great  Britain  for  aid,  and  even  of  a  march 
on  Philadelphia. 

The  movement  of  the  troops  was  fixed  for  the  first  of 
September.  Meanwhile,  three  commissioners,  appointed 
by  the  president,  Senator  Ross,  Bradford,  the  attorney 
general,  and  Yates,  one  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Pennsylvania,  were  dispatched  to  the  insurgent 
counties,  with  discretionary  authority  to  arrange,  if  pos- 
sible, any  time  prior  to  the  14th  of  September,  an  effect- 
ual submission  to  the  laws.  Chief  Justice  M'Kean  and 
General  Irving  were  appointed  commissioners  on  the  part 
of  the  state.  Simultaneously  with  this  appointment, 
Mifflin  issued  two  proclamations,  one  calling  the  Legis- 
lature together,  the  other  requiring  the  rioters  to  submit, 
and  announcing  his  determination  to  obey  the  president's 
call  for  militia. 

The  two  boards  of  commissioners  crossed  the  mount- 
ains together,  and,  on  arriving  in  the  disturbed  district,  Aug  it 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES.      • 

CHAPTER  found  fhe  convention,  called  by  the  meeting  at  JMingc 
'  Creek,  already  in  session  at  Parkinson's  Ferry.  It  con. 
1794.  sisted  of  upward  of  two  hundred  delegates,  including  twc 
from  that  part  of  Bedford  county  west  of  the  mountains, 
and  three  from  Ohio  county,  in  Virginia.  Almost  all  the 
townships  of  the  four  western  counties  were  fully  repre- 
sented. Cook  was  chairman,  and  Gallatin  secretary. 
The  delegates  were  convened  on  an  eminence,  under  the 
shade  of  trees,  surrounded  by  a  collection  of  spectators, 
some  of  them  armed.  Near  by  stood  a  liberty-pole,  with 
the  motto,  "Liberty,  and  no  excise!  No  asylum  for 
cowards  and  traitors  !" 

A  series  of  resolutions  was  offered  by  Marshall,  of 
which  the  first,  against  taking  citizens  out  of  the  vicin- 
ity for  trial,  passed  without  objection.  The  second  res- 
olution proposed  the  appointment  of  a  committee  of  pub- 
lic safety,  empowered  "  to  call  forth  the  resources  of  the 
Western  country  to  repel  any  hostile  attempts  against 
the  citizens."  After  a  speech,  in  which  he  denied  any 
danger  of  hostilities,  the  only  danger  being  that  of  legal 
coercion,  Gallatin  proposed  to  refer  this  resolution  to  a 
select  committee.  But,  though  there  were  many  per- 
sons present  whose  chief  object,  like  Gallatin's,  it  was 
to  extricate  the  people  from  the  disastrous  consequences 
of  a  violent  opposition  to  the  laws,  which  they  themselves 
had  done  much  to  stimulate,  no  one  dared  to  second  the 
motion.  Marshall,  however,  already  began  to  waver ; 
and  he  presently  offered  to  withdraw  the  proposition,  pro- 
vided a  committee  of  sixty  was  appointed,  with  power 
to  call  another  meeting.  This  was  readily  agreed  to,  as 
was  also  the  appointment  of  a  sub-committee  of  fifteen, 
to  confer  with  the  federal  and  state  commissioners.  For 
the  purpose  of  being  remodeled,  the  resolutions  were  re- 
ferred to  a  committee,  consisting  of  Bradford,  Gallatin 


WHISKY   INSURRECTION.  507 

Brackenridge,  and  Herman  Husbands,  then  a  very  old  CHAPTEH 

man,  a  leader  formerly  among  the  North  Carolina  Reg-  

ulators.  The  determination  expressed  in  one  of  these  1794. 
resolutions,  not  to  submit  to  the  excise,  was  struck  out 
on  Gallatin's  motion.  But  neither  he  nor  any  body  else 
went  so  far  as  to  advocate  obedience  to  it.  A  promise 
to  submit  to  the  state  laws  was,  however,  inserted.  This 
ousiness  being  disposed  of,  the  exercise  of  some  address 
secured  a  dissolution  of  the  meeting,  the  assembly  of  the 
committee  of  sixty  being  fixed  for  the  2d  of  September. 
A  few  days  after,  as  had  been  arranged,  the  commit- 
tee of  fifteen  met  the  commissioners  at  Pittsbttrg.  Among  A.up  21 
the  members  of  this  committee  were  Bradford,  Marshall, 
Cook,  Gallatin,  and  Brackenridge,  the  whole,  except 
Bradford,  being  inclined  to  an  accommodation.  A  can- 
didate for  Congress  for  the  Pittsburg  district,  in  his  anxi- 
ety to  secure  votes,  Brackenridge  had  hitherto  gone  so 
far  as  to  make  the  insurgents  believe  he  was  on  their  side. 
But  he  was  well  aware  of  the  folly  and  hopelessness  of 
their  cause,  and  at  bottom  not  less  anxious  than  Gallatin 
to  escape  out  of  the  present  dilemma.  In  a  book  which 
he  afterward  published,  he  excused  the  part  he  had  taken 
as  necessary  to  protect  himself  against  the  violence  of  the 
insurgents.  The  demands  of  the  commissioners  were  ex- 
ceedingly moderate.  They  required  from  the  committee 
of  sixty  an  explicit  declaration  of  their  determination  to 
submit  to  the  laws,  and  a  recommendation  to  the  citizens 
at  large  to  submit  also,  and  to  abstain  from  all  opposition, 
direct  or  indirect,  and  especially  from  violence  or  threats 
against  the  excise  officers  or  the  complying  distillers. 
Primary  meetings  were  required  to  be  held  to  test  the 
sense  of  the  citizens  in  these  particulars.  Should  satis- 
factory assurances  be  given  on  or  before  the  fourteenth  of 
September,  the  commissioners  promised  a  suspension  till 


508  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  next  July  of  all  prosecutions  for  offenses  prior  in  datr 
to  this  arrangement;  and  in  case  the  law,  during  that 
1794.  interval,  should  be  generally  complied  with,  in  good  faith, 
a  final  pardon,  and  oblivion  of  all  such  offenses. 

The  committee  of  fifteen  pronounced  these  terms  rea- 
sonable;  and,  to  give  more  time  to  carry  out  the  ar- 
rangement, they  agreed  to  anticipate  by  four  days  the 
calling  together  of  the  committee  of  sixty.  Meanwhile 
a  report  spread  that  the  conferees  had  been  bribed  ;  in- 
deed, that  charge  was  made  in  express  terms  in  a  letter 
of  Tom  the  Tinker  to  the  Pittsburg  Gazette,  which  the 
printer,  as  was  the  case  with  other  communications  of 
that  anonymous  personage,  did  not  dare  to  omit  to  pub- 
lish. While  the  members  of  the  committee  of  sixty 
were  collecting  at  Brownsville,  the  place  appointed  for 
the  meeting,  an  armed  party  of  horse  and  foot  entered 
the  town  with  drums  beating.  The  friends  of  submis- 
sion were  so  intimidated  that,  but  for  Gallatin,  they 
would  have  abandoned  all  thoughts  of  urging  an  accom- 
modation. Bradford  insisted  on  taking  the  question  at 
once ;  but,  by  the  exercise  of  some  address,  the  matter 
was  postponed  till  the  next  day,  and  meanwhile  the 
armed  party  were  persuaded  to  return  to  their  homes. 

Galiatin  opened  the  business  the  next  morning  in  a 
speech,  in  which  the  motives  to  submission  were  judi- 
ciously urged.  He  was  followed  by  Brackenridge,  who 
now  came  out  strongly  on  the  same  side.  Bradford,  in 
an  extravagant  harangue,  urged  continued  resistance, 
and  the  organization  of  an  independent  state.  Not  dar- 
ing to  expose  themselves  by  an  open  vote,  the  friends  of 
submission  had  prevailed  that  the  decision  should  be  by 
secret  ballot.  They  were  thus  enabled  to  carry,  by  a 
very  lean  majority,  a  resolution  that  it  would  be  for  the 
interest  of  the  people  to  accede  to  the  terms  offered  b^y 


WHISKY    INSURRECTION.  5Q9 

the  commissioners.      But  they  did  not  dare  to  propose  CHAFTEK 

what  the  commissioners  had  demanded,  a  pledge  from 1 

the  members  of  the  ccmmittee  themselves  to  submit  to  1794. 
the  law,  and   arrangements  for   obtaining,  in   primary 
meetings,  a   like   pledge   from   the   individual   citizens. 
After  appointing  a  new  committee  of  conference,  the 
committee  of  sixty  adjourned  without  day. 

The  new  conferees  asked  of  the  commissioners  further  Sept.  i. 
delay  till  the  10th  of  October,  to  ascertain  the  sense  of 
the  people ;  but  this  was  declined  as  being  beyond  their 
authority.  They  now  required  that  meetings  should  be 
held  in  the  several  townships  on  the  eleventh  of  Sep- 
tember, any  two  or  more  members  of  the  late  commit- 
tee of  sixty,  or  any  justice  of  the  peace  to  preside,  at 
which  the  citizens  should  vote  yea  or  nay  on  the  ques- 
tion of  submitting  to  and  supporting  the  law,  all  those 
voting  in  the  affirmative  to  sign  a  declaration  to  that 
effect,  which  was  to  secure  them  an  amnesty  as  to  past 
offenses.  The  third  day  after  the  vote,  the  presiding  of- 
ficers were  to  assemble  in  their  respective  county  court 
houses,  to  ascertain  the  number  of  votes  both  ways,  and 
to  declare  their  opinion  in  writing  whether  the  submis- 
sion was  so  general  that  excise  inspection  offices  could 
be  re-established  with  safety  ;  all  the  papers  to  be  for- 
warded to  the  commissioners  at  Union  Town  by  the  six- 
teenth of  the  month. 

Meetings  were  held  under  this  arrangement  in  many  Sept.  ij 
of  the  townships,  but  the  result,  on  the  whole,  was  quite 
nnsatisfactory.  Most  of  the  more  intelligent  leaders 
were  careful  to  provide  for  their  own  safety  by  signing 
the  required  submission  ;  but  many  of  those  who  had 
taken  no  active  part  in  resisting  the  law  refused  to  attend, 
or  to  pledge  themselves  to  obedience.  As  they  had  com- 
mitted no  offense,  such  was  their  argument,  they  ought 


510  HISTORY    OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  not  to  be  required  to  submit — as  if  winking  at  the  vio 
'      lation  of  law  and  neglecting  to  assist  in  its  enforcement 

1794.  were  not  among  the  greatest  of  offenses.  In  some  town- 
ships  the  meetings  were  violently  broken  up  and  the 
papers  torn  to  pieces.  Such  was  the  case  in  the  town  in 
which  Findley  resided,  who,  it  seems,  was  personally  in 
suited  on  the  occasion.  From  Allegany  county  no  re- 
turns were  received.  The  judges  of  the  vote  in  West- 
moreland expressed  the  opinion  that  excise  inspection 
offices  could  not  be  safely  established  in  that  county. 
In  the  other  two  counties  the  expression  of  any  direct 
opinion  was  avoided  ;  but  these  counties  had  always  been 
more  violent  than  "Westmoreland.  The  better  disposed 
part  of  the  population  had  begun  to  form  associations  for 
mutual  defense,  and  the  opinion  among  them  was  quite 
universal  that  the  presence  of  the  troops  was  absolutely 
necessary. 

Notwithstanding  the  timidity  and  alarms  of  Randolph 
and  others,  real  or  pretended,  the  president's  call  for 
militia,  as  on  the  former  appeal  to  the  people  in  the  case 
of  Genet,  had  been  responded  to  with  a  spirit  that  gave 
new  strength  and  confidence  to  the  government.  The 
Pennsylvanians  at  first  were  rather  backward,  and  a 
draft  ordered  by  Mifflin  seemed  likely,  by  reason,  it  was 
said,  of  defects  in  the  militia  laws,  to  prove  a  failure. 
But  the  Legislature,  on  coming  together,  having  first 
denounced  the  insurgents  in  strong  terms,  to  save  the 

Sept  19.  delays  attendant  on  drafting,  authorized  the  govern- 
ment to  accept  volunteers,  to  whom  a  bounty  was  of- 
fered. As  if  to  make  up  for  his  former  hesitation,  and 
with  a  military  sensibility  to  the  disgrace  of  failing  to 
meet  the  requisition,  Mifflin,  in  a  tour  through  the  lowei 
counties,  as  in  several  cases  during  the  Revolutionary 
struggle,  by  the  influence  of  his  extraordinary  popular 


WHISKY    INSURRECTION,  511 

eloquence,  soon  caused  the  ranks  to  be  filled  up.      As  a  CHAPTEB 

VII. 

further  stimulus,  subscriptions  were  opened  to  support , 

the  wives  and  children  of  the  volunteers  during  their  ab-  1794. 
sence.  The  quotas  of  the  other  states  were  promptly 
furnished,  composed  in  a  large  part  of  volunteers.  The 
troops  of  Virginia,  led  by  Morgan,  and  those  of  Mary- 
land by  Smith,  the  Baltimore  member  of  Congress,  form- 
ing together  the  left  wing,  assembled  at  Cumberland, 
thence  to  march  across  the  mountains  by  Braddock's 
road  ;  those  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey,  led  by 
Governors  Mifflin  and  Howell  in  person,  and  forming  the 
right  wing,  had  their  rendezvous  at  Bedford,  to  cross  the 
mountains  by  the  northern  or  Pennsylvania  route.  The 
command-in-chief  of  the  expedition  was  given  to  Gov- 
ernor Lee,  of  Virginia. 

The  commissioners  having  returned  to  Philadelphia 
and  made  their  report,  the  president  the  next  day  issued  Sept.  24 
a  new  proclamation,  giving  notice  of  the  advance  of  the 
troops — which,  in  anticipation  of  the  failure  of  the  mis- 
sion, had  already  been  put  in  motion — and  commanding 
submission  to  the  laws.  There  was  the  more  need  of 
decisive  measures,  as  the  spirit  of  disaffection  was  evi- 
dently spreading.  At  Greensburg,  in  Westmoreland 
county,  a  house  in  which  the  state  commissioners 
lodged  on  their  way  home  had  been  assailed  by  a  mob, 
who  demanded  entrance,  broke  the  windows,  and  were 
only  driven  away  by  threats  of  being  fired  upon.  The 
same  feeling  had  also  spread  to  the  east  side  of  the 
mountains.  At  Carlisle,  while  on  their  way  home, 
Judges  M'Kean  and  Yates  had  required  bonds  of  certain 
persons  charged  with  seditious  practices  in  erecting 
whisky  or  liberty  poles.  Hardly  had  they  left  the  town, 
when  two  hundred  armed  men  marched  in,  and,  being 
disappointed  in  seizing  the  judges,  burned  them  in  effigy, 


512 


HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


CHAPTER  and  committed  other  outrages.      There  were  also  signs 

_J of  similar  disturbances  in  the  neighboring  counties  of 

1794.  Maryland  ;  but  these  were  soon  suppressed  by  a  party 
of  horse,  who  made  more  than  a  hundred  prisoners,  most 
of  whom  were  committed  to  Hagerstown  jail. 

Calmer  thoughts,  and  the  news  that  the  troops  were 
marching  against  them,  soon  produced  a  change  of  feel- 
ing in  the  western  counties.  Bradford  and  others  of  the 
more  violent  fled  the  country.  Encouraged  by  these 
symptoms  of  returning  reason,  the  better  disposed  caused 
Oct.  2.  a  new  convention  to  be  held  at  Parkinson's  Ferry.  Res- 
olutions of  submission  were  passed,  and  a  declaration 
was  agreed  to,  that  the  late  failure  in  obtaining  written 
pledges  was  principally  owing  to  want  of  time  and  in- 
formation, to  a  prevailing  sense  of  innocence,  and  to  the 
idea  that  to  sign  the  pledge  required  would  imply  a  con- 
fession of  guilt.  Findley  at  last  had  mustered  courage 
to  take  a  decided  part  on  the  side  of  order ;  and  he  was 
dispatched,  with  one  Redick,  to  convey  these  resolutions 
to  the  president,  and  to  stop,  if  possible,  the  march  of 
the  troops.  At  Carlisle  these  commissioners  encoun- 
tered the  advance  of  the  right  wing,  five  or  six  thousand 
strong.  Findley,  who  has  left  us  a  very  labored  apology 
for  himself  and  his  political  friends,  under  the  title  of  a 
"  History  of  the  Insurrection,"  found  the  troops,  as  he 
tells  us,  in  a  high  state  of  excitement  against  the  rebels, 
Two  persons  had  been  killed  already;  a  man,  run  through 
the  body  by  a  soldier,  whose  bayonet  he  had  seized  when 
ordered  to  arrest  him  for  insulting  an  officer,  and  a  boy, 
accidentally  shot  by  one  of  a  party  of  light  horse  sent  to 
arrest  those  concerned  in  the  late  riot  at  Carlisle.  But 
in  both  these  cases — and  this  was  the  only  blood  shed 
during  the  expedition — the  parties  concerned  had  been 
delivered  over  to  the  civil  authorities  for  trial,  and  every 


WHISKY    INSURRECTION.  5^3 

effort  was  made  by  the  president  and  the  Secretary  of  CHAPTER 

the  Treasury,  both  of  whom  had  followed  the  troops  to 

Carlisle,  to  preserve  the  strictest  discipline,  and  to  im-  1794. 
press  the  necessity  of  avoiding  all  unnecessary  violence 
and  harshness.  Findley,  however,  who  was  but  just  be- 
ginning to  recover  from  the  terror  of  having  his  buildings 
burned,  or  being  himself  tarred  and  feathered,  by  men 
whose  violence  he  had  found  it  much  easier  to  stimulate 
than  to  control,  seems  to  have  been  not  a  little  fright- 
ened, on  the  other  hand,  at  the  swagger,  bluster,  and 
loud  words  of  some  of  the  militia  officers  against  the 
whisky  rebels,  whose  insolent  resistance  to  the  laws  had 
made  necessary  so  long  and  fatiguing  a  march. 

The  president  treated  Findley  and  his  brother  embas- 
sador  with  courtesy,  and  admitted  them  to  several  inter- 
views ;  but  did  not  see  fit,  from  any  evidence  which  they 
exhibited,  to  countermand  the  march  of  the  troops.  They 
hastened  back,  therefore,  to  procure  more  general  and 
unequivocal  assurances,  which  they  hoped  to  transmit  to 
Bedford,  where  Washington  was  again  to  meet  the  right 
wing,  after  inspecting  the  troops  on  the  left.  The  Park- 
inson Ferry  Convention,  augmented  by  many  discreet 
citizens,  was  again  called  together  for  the  third  time.  Oct.  24 
Resolutions  were  passed  declaring  the  competency  of  the 
civil  authorities  to  enforce  the  laws,  recommending  all 
delinquents  who  had  not  already  secured  an  indemnity  to 
surrender  for  trial,  and  expressing  the  conviction  that 
offices  of  inspection  might  be  opened  with  safety,  and 
that  the  excise  duties  would  be  paid.  Findley  hastened 
back  with  these  resolutions,  but  before  he  reached  the 
army  the  president  had  already  returned  to  Philadelphia 
Hamilton,  however,  remained  behind,  and  was  believed 
to  act  as  the  president's  deputy.  The  troops  crossed  the 
Alleganies  in  a  heavy  rain,  up  to  tboir  knees  in  mud, 
TV.— K  K 


514  HISTORY  CF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  and  not  without  severe  suffering,  which  occasioned  in  the 

vii 
end  a  good  many  deaths.     The  two  wings  formed  a  junc- 

1794.  tion  at  Union  Town,  and,  as  they  advanced  into  the  dis- 
affected counties,  the  re-establishment  of  the  authority 
of  the  law  became  complete.  Having  arrived  at  Park- 

Nov.  8.  insonrs  Ferry,  Lee  issued  a  proclamation  confirming  the 
amnesty  to  those  who  had  entitled  themselves  to  it,  and 
calling  upon  all  the  inhabitants  to  take  the  oath  of  al- 
legiance to  the  United  States. 

Nov.  13.  A  few  days  after,  arrangements  having  been  previously 
made  for  it,  there  was  a  general  seizure,  by  parties  de- 
tached for  that  purpose,  of  persons  supposed  to  be  crim- 
inally concerned  in  the  late  transactions.  But  as  those 
against  whom  the  strongest  evidence  existed  had  either 
fled  the  country  or  taken  advantage  of  the  amnesty,  this 
seizure  fell  principally  on  persons  who,  without  taking 
an  active  part,  had  been  content  with  encouraging  and 
stimulating  others.  Many  were  dismissed  at  once  for 
want  of  evidence  ;  and  of  those  who  were  bound  over  for 
trial  at  Philadelphia,  the  greater  part  were  afterward  ac- 
quitted. Among  those  thus  bound  over,  Brackenridge 
was  one ;  but,  instead  of  being  tried,  he  was  used  as  a 
witness  against  the  others.  These  people  complained 
loudly  of  the  inconvenience  to  which  they  had  been  put 
and  of  the  harsh  treatment  which,  in  some  few  cases, 
had  been  experienced  at  the  hands  of  the  military  par- 
ties by  whom  the  arrests  had  been  made.  But  such  evils 
were  only  the  natural  consequence  of  lying  quietly  by 
and  allowing  resistance  to  the  laws  to  aggravate  itself 
into  rebellion. 

Shortly  after  the  seizure  of  prisoners,  the  greater  part 
of  the  troops  were  withdrawn  ;  but  a  body  of  twenty-five 
hundred  men,  under  Morgan,  remained  through  the  win- 
ter encamped  in  the  district  The  advances  necessary 


WHISKiT   INS LPRECT ION.  515 

to  sustain  the  troops  in  the  field  had  been  made  out  of  CHAPTER 

VII. 

a  sum  in  the  treasury  of  about  $800,000,  the  unexpend- 

ed  balance  of  the  foreign  loans,  Congress  being  trusted  1794. 
to  for  making  good  the  deficiency. 

About  the  time  that  the  troops  entered  the  disaffected 
counties,  an  election  had  taken  place,  at  which  were  cho- 
sen not  only  members  of  the  state  Assembly,  but  mem- 
bers of  Congress  also.  When  the  Legislature  of  Penn- 
sylvania met,  a  question  was  raised  as  to  the  validity  of  L»eu 
these  elections.  Of  those  returned  to  the  Assembly,  Gal- 
latin  was  one  ;  and  he  had  the  greater  interest  in  the 
question,  since  he  had  been  elected  at  the  same  time  a 
member  of  the  fourth  Congress,  and  that  body  might  be 
influenced,  perhaps,  by  the  example  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Assembly.  In  the  course  of  an  able  speech,  Gallatin 
confevssed  his  "  political  sin"  in  having  been  concerned 
in  the  preparation  and  adoption  of  the  Pittsburg  resolu- 
tions of  Aug.  24,  1792,  which,  though  not  illegal,  he 
admitted  to  have  been  "  violent,  intemperate,  and  repre- 
hensible ;"  but  all  the  rest  of  the  opposition  made  to  the 
Excise  Law  by  means  of  public  meetings  he  was  inclined 
to  justify,  and  to  shift  off'  the  blame  of  the  whole  affair 
upon  a  few  obscure  rioters.  Order,  he  maintained,  had 
been  substantially  re-established  before  the  elections  took 
place.  The  Assembly,  however,  judged  differently,  and 
a  new  election  was  ordered. 

Of  all  the  prisoners  tried  before  the  Circuit  Court  at 
Philadelphia,  only  two  were  found  guilty  of  treason,  both 
of  whom,  from  some  palliating  circumstances,  were  ul- 
timately pardoned  by  the  president.  A  number  more 
were  convicted  of  minor  offenses.  According  to  Find- 
ley,  Hamilton  made  great  efforts  to  obtain  evidence 
against  himself,  Smilie,  and  Gallatin.  But,  however 
reprehensible  their  conduct  might  have  boon  in  encour- 


516  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

CHAPTER  aging  and  stimulating  the  original  opposition  to  the  ex- 
cise.  the  late  outbreak,  as  Gallatin  maintained  in  his 
1794.  speech,  and  Findley  afterward  at  great  length  in  his  His- 
tory, seems  to  have  been  a  sudden,  unpremeditated,  and, 
in  its  particular  circumstances,  an  accidental  thing,  with 
which  they  had  no  immediate  concern.  They  had  only 
prepared  the  combustibles  to  which  others  set  the  torch ; 
and  they  seem  to  have  exerted  themselves  with  good  faith, 
and  Gallatin  at  some  personal  risk,  and  with  a  good  deal 
of  courage,  in  quenching  the  flame  when  actually  kindled. 

The  vigor,  energy,  promptitude,  and  decision  with 
which  the  federal  authority  had  been  vindicated ;  the 
general  rally  in  its  support,  even  on  the  part  of  many 
who  had  leaned  more  or  less  to  the  opposition ;  the  rep- 
robation every  where  expressed  against  violent  resistance 
to  the  law  ;  and  the  subdued  tone,  especially  of  the  Dem- 
ocratic societies,  made  a  great  addition  to  the  strength 
of  the  government.  The  Federalists  exulted  in  this  en- 
ergetic display  of  authority,  and  Hamilton  declared  that 
proof  at  last  had  been  given  of  the  capacity  of  the  gov- 
ernment to  sustain  itself.  In  that  point  of  view,  both 
he  and  Washington  considered  the  outbreak,  however 
much  to  be  lamented  in  other  respects,  as  a  fortunate 
occurrence. 

In  due  proportion  to  the  exultation  of  the  Federalists 
was  the  vexation  of  the  chief  leaders  of  the  opposition ; 
a  vexation  the  keener,  because,  to  a  great  extent,  it  was 
necessary  to  withhold  the  expression  of  it.  This  vexa 
tion  was  largely  shared  by  Fauchet,  the  French  minis- 
ter, whose  communications  on  the  subject  to  his  own 
government  contained  statements  and  reflections  suffi- 
ciently remarkable.  In  his  private  dispatch,  No.  6,  the 
precise  date  of  which  does  not  appear,  but  which  must 
have  been  written  some  time  in  August,  was  given,  ac- 


FAUCHET  S   DISPATCHES.  517 

cording  to  an  extract  afterward  furnished  by  himself,  the  CHAPTEB 

following  extraordinary  piece  of  information.      "  Scarce 

was  the  commotion  known" — the  disturbances,  that  is,  1794. 
in  the  Western  country — «  when  the  Secretary  of  State 
came  to  my  house.  All  his  countenance  was  grief.  He 
requested  of  me  a  private  conversation.  It  is  all  over, 
he  said  to  me ;  a  civil  war  is  about  to  ravage  our  un- 
happy country.  Four  men,  by  their  talents,  their  influ- 
ence, their  energy,  may  save  it.  But,  debtors  of  English 
merchants,  they  will  be  deprived  of  their  liberty  if  they 
take  the  smallest  step.  Could  you  lend  them  instanta- 
neous funds  sufficient  to  shelter  them  from  English  per- 
secution ?"  "  This  inquiry,"  the  dispatch  continued, 
"  astonished  me.  It  was  impossible  for  me  to  make  a 
satisfactory  answer.  You  know  my  want  of  power,  and 
my  defect  of  pecuniary  means.  I  shall  draw  myself  from 
the  affair  by  some  common-place  remarks,  and  by  throw- 
ing myself  on  the  pure  and  disinterested  principles  of 
the  republic." 

To  this  subject  Fauchet  returned  in  his  dispatch,  No. 
10,  dated  the  31st  of  October.  It  commenced  with  a 
sketch  of  the  rise  of  parties  in  the  United  States,  in  sub- 
stantial accordance  with  the  views  of  Jefferson  as  exhib- 
ited in  previous  chapters,  and  evidently  derived  from  some 
one  of  the  Republican  party,  who  had  undertaken,  as 
Jefferson  himself  had  in  Genet's  case,  to  initiate  Fau- 
chet into  "the  mysteries"  of  American  politics.  In  this 
initiation  Mr.  Secretary  Randolph  would  seem  to  have 
had  a  principal  share,  since  Fauchet  speaks,  in  the  com- 
mencement of  the  dispatch,  of  his  "  precious  confessions" 
as  alone  throwing  "a  satisfactory  light  upon  every  thing 
which  comes  to  pass."  The  disturbances  in  Western 
Pennsylvania  were  represented  by  Fauchet  as  having 
grown  out  of  political  hostility  to  Hamilton,  and  Ham* 


518  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  ilton  himself  as  taking  the  advantage  which  they  afford 
ed  to  make  the  president  regard  as  a  blow  at  the  Con- 
1794.  stitution  what,  in  fact,  was  only  a  protest  against  the 
minister.  Hence  the  persistence  in  enforcing  the  excise, 
it  being  Hamilton's  intention — and  this  piece  of  informa- 
tion was  ascribed  expressly  to  Randolph — "  to  mislead 
the  president  into  unpopular  courses,  and  to  introduce 
absolute  power  under  pretext  of  giving  energy  to  the 
government."  Such,  according  tb  Fauchet,  was  the  or- 
igin of  the  expedition  into  the  western  counties  of  Penn- 
sylvania. His  disgust  at  the  general  co-operation  it  had 
called  forth,  and  at  the  behavior  in  the  matter  of  certain 
professed  Republicans,  is  sufficiently  evinced  in  what 
follows.  "  Of  the  governors  whose  duty  it  was  to  ap- 
pear at  the  head  of  the  requisitions,  the  Governor  of 
Pennsylvania  alone  enjoyed  the  name  of  Republican. 
His  opinions  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  of 
his  systems  were  known  to  be  unfavorable.  The  sec- 
retary of  this  state  [Dallas]  possessed  great  influence  in 
the  popular  society  of  Philadelphia,  which,  in  its  turn, 
influenced  those  of  other  states ;  of  course,  he  merited 
attention.  It  appears  that  these  men,  with  others  un- 
known to  me,  were  balancing  to  decide  on  their  party. 
Two  or  three  days  before  the  proclamation  was  pub- 
lished, and,  of  course,  before  the  cabinet  had  resolved  on 
its  measures,  Mr.  Randolph  came  to  see  me  with  an  air  of 
great  eagerness,  and  made  to  me  the  overtures  of  which 
I  have  given  an  account  in  my  No.  6.  Thus,  with  some 
thousands  of  dollars,  the  republic  could  have  decided  on 
civil  war  or  on  peaqe  !  Thus  the  consciences  of  the  pre- 
tended patriots  of  America  already  have  their  prices ! 

<c  Such,  citizen,  is  the  evident  consequence  of  the  sys- 
tem of  finances  conceived  by  Mr.  Hamilton.  He  has 
made  of  a  whole  nation  a  stock-jobbing,  speculating. 


FAUCHET'S    DISPATCHES.  519 

selfish  people.     Riches  alone  here  fix  consideration,  and,  CHAPTER 

as  no  one  likes  to  be  despised,  they  are  universally  sought , , 

after.  Nevertheless,  this  depravity  has  not  yet  embraced  1794 
the  mass  of  the  people.  Still  there  are  patriots  of  whom 
I  delight  to  entertain  an  idea  worthy  of  that  imposing 
title.  Consult  Monroe — he  is  of  this  number ;  he  had 
apprised  me  of  the  men  whom  the  current  of  events  has 
dragged  along  as  bodies  devoid  of  weight.  His  friend 
Madison  is  also  an  honest  man.  Jefferson,  on  whom  the 
patriots  cast  their  eyes  to  succeed  the  president,  had  fore- 
seen these  crises ;  he  prudently  retired  in  order  to  avoid 
making  a  figure  in  scenes  the  secret  of  which  will,  soon- 
er or  later,  be  brought  to  light. 

"  As  soon  as  it  was  decided  that  the  French  republic 
purchased  no  men  to  do  their  duty,  there  were  to  be  seen 
individuals  about  whose  conduct  the  government  could, 
at  least,  form  uneasy  conjectures,  giving  themselves  up 
with  a  scandalous  ostentation  to  its  views,  and  even  sec- 
onding its  declarations.  The  popular  societies  soon  emit- 
ted resolutions  stamped  with  the  same  spirit,  which,  ai- 
though  they  may  have  been  prompted  by  love  of  order, 
might  nevertheless  have  been  omitted,  or  uttered  with 
less  solemnity.  Then  were  seen  coming  from  the  very 
men  whom  we  have  been  accustomed  to  regard  as  hav- 
ing little  friendship  for  the  system  of  the  treasurer,  ha- 
rangues without  end,  in  order  to  give  a  new  direction  to 
the  public  mind." 

We  shall  have  occasion  to  state  hereafter  the  joint 
explanation,  lamely  attempted  by  Fauchet  and  Randolph, 
of  the  unofficial  intercourse  between  them,  disclosed  in 
these  extraordinary  dispatches.  They  are  given  here, 
not  for  any  weight  to  be  attached  to  their  allegations  or 
conjectures,  but  as  going  to  show  the  opinions  which 
Fauchet  had  imbibed  of  the  state  of  politics  and  the  char- 


520  HTKTORtf   OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  acter  of  individuals,  and  as  tending  to  throw  light  upon 

VII 

subsequent  events,  by  exhibiting  the  position  in  which 
1794.  Randolph  really  stood  to  the  policy  of  the  administration 
and  his  colleagues  in  it.  It  certainly  must  be  confessed 
that  Washington  was  at  least  very  unfortunate  in  the 
Virginia  members  of  his  cabinet. 

Among  numerous  other  bugbears  suggested  by  those 
who  had  opposed  the  use  of  force  against  the  Pennsyl- 
vania insurgents,  the  danger  had  been  much  dwelt  upon 
that  they  might  cut  off  the  supply  of  provisions  for  the 
army  in  the  West,  thereby  exposing  it  to  disbandment 
or  destruction.  But  as  the  militia  were  crossing  the 
mountains,  news  arrived  of  a  complete  victory  gained  by 
Wayne  over  the  Indians. 

Wayne  had  commenced  operations  early  in  the  sum- 
mer by  pushing  forward  a  strong  detachment  from  his 
camp  at  Grenville  to  occupy  St.  Glair's  battle-field, 
twenty-four  miles  in  advance.  Fort  Recovery,  built 
30.  upon  this  spot,  was  presently  attacked  by  a  large  body 
of  Indians,  who  were  repulsed,  however,  after  a  two  days' 
fight.  But  the  Indians  were  not  entirely  unsuccessful, 
since  they  carried  off  three  hundred  pack-mules,  and  in- 
flicted a  loss  of  fifty  men  upon  an  escort  of  three  times 
that  number,  which  had  just  guarded  a  provision  train 
to  the  fort,  and  lay  encamped  outside.  Meanwhile,  Gen- 
eral Scott  was  employed  in  Kentucky  in  raising  a  body 
of  mounted  militia  to  re-enforce  Wayne's  legion,  which, 
garrisons  deducted,  did  not  much  exceed  two  thousand 
effective  men.  Upon  Scott's  arrival  with  eleven  hund- 
8.  red  of  these  volunteers,  Wayne  advanced  to  the  conflu- 
ence of  the  Au  Glaize  and  the  Maumee.  The  Indians 
had  expected  the  advance  in  another  direction.  Taken 
by  surprise,  they  fled  precipitately,  and  this  "  grand  em- 
porium" of  the  hostile  tribes,  as  Wayne  styled  it,  was 


WAYNE'S   VICTORY.  52! 

gained  without  loss.      Here  were  fields  of  corn,  planted  CHAPTEF 

by  the  Indians,  more  extensive  than  any  which  Wayne 

had  ever  seen.  The  fertile  margins  of  these  beautiful  1794. 
rivers,  for  several  miles  above  and  below  their  junction, 
appeared  one  continued  village.  For  the  permanent  oc- 
cupation of  this  important  district,  a  strong  stockade  was 
built,  called  Fort  Defiance,  and  another,  called  Fort 
A.dams,  on  the  St.  Mary's,  as  an  intermediate  post,  to 
connect  it  with  Fort  Recovery.  The  main  body  of  the 
Indians  had  retired  down  the  Maumee  about  thirty  miles, 
to  the  foot  of  the  rapids,  where  the  British  had  recently 
built  a  new  fort.  Wayne  sent  a  messenger  proposing  to 
treat,  to  which  the  Indians  replied  by  asking  delay  for 
ten  days.  On  receiving  this  answer,  the  army  was  at 
once  put  in  motion.  Two  days  they  marched  down  the  Aug.  16. 
Maumee  ;  a  third  was  spent  in  reconnoitering  the  ene- 
my, who  were  found  encamped  in  a  bushy  wood,  their  left 
protected  by  the  rocky  bank  of  the  river.  The  position 
nf  the  Indians  having  been  ascertained,  the  advance  was 
resumed  in  the  same  order  as  before,  the  right  flank  of  Aug  20 
the  legion  leaning  on  the  river,  one  battalion  of  the 
mounted  volunteers  on  the  left,  another  in  the  rear, 
and  a  strong  detachment  in  front,  to  give  notice  when 
the  enemy  were  found.  As  soon  as  the  Indian  fire  was 
heard,  the  legion  was  formed  in  two  lines,  in  the  midst 
of  a  thick  wood,  the  ground  being  covered  with  old  fallen 
timber,  prostrated  in  some  tornado,  a  position  very  favor- 
able to  the  enemy,  since  the  mounted  volunteers  could 
hardly  act.  The  Indians  were  in  three  lines,  extend- 
ing from  the  river  at  right  angles  within  supporting  dis- 
tance of  each  other.  They  seemed,  from  the  weight 
of  their  fire,  to  be  endeavoring  to  turn  the  left  flank  of 
the  legion,  whereupon  Wayne  ordered  the  second  line 
into  position  on  the  left  of  the  first.  He  also  directed 


522  HIS10RY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  mounted  volunteers  to  attempt  to  gain  the  enemy's 
.  rear  by  a  circuitous  route,  and  Captain  Campbell,  with 

1794.  the  legionary  cavalry,  to  push  in  between  the  Indians  and 
the  river,  the  ground  there  being  somewhat  more  open. 
Orders,  simultaneously  given,  for  the  first  line  to  start 
the  enemy  from  his  covert  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet, 
were  obeyed  with  such  alacrity  that,  before  the  other 
troops  could  get  into  position,  the  Indians  were  com- 
pletely routed.  Wayne  lost  a  hundred  and  seven  men 
in  killed  and  wounded.  Neither  the  loss  nor  the  number 
of  the  Indians  was  ever  ascertained.  The  Indian  corn- 
fields were  ravaged  close  up  to  the  British  fort,  and  the 
establishment  of  M'Kee,  the  British  Indian  ageril,  was 
burned  with  the  rest.  It  was  the  universal  opinion  in 
the  army  that  the  British  had  encouraged  the  Indians  to 
fight.  It  wras  even  believed  that  some  of  the  militia 
from  Detroit  had  been  in  the  action  ;  but  that  was  ut- 
terly improbable.  Some  very  tart  correspondence  passed 
between  Wayne  and  the  commander  of  the  British  fort, 
to  whom  a  deserter  had  reported  that  Wayne  intended  to 
attack  him,  for  which,  indeed,  the  army  was  sufficiently 
ready,  had  a  good  excuse  and  opportunity  occurred. 

Three  days  after  the  battle,  Wayne  fell  back  to  Fort 
Defiance.  The  defenses  were  completed,  intermediate 
posts  were  established,  garrisons  were  left  in  Fort  Defi- 
ance and  Fort  Recovery,  and,  after  a  very  successful 
campaign  of  ninety  days,  during  which  he  had  marched 
three  hundred  miles  along  a  road  cut  by  the  army,  had 
gained  a  victory,  driven  the  Indians  from  their  princi- 
pal settlement,  destroyed  their  winter's  provisions,  and 
tfov.  ?  left  a  post  in  the  heart  of  their  country,  Wayne  returned 
with  the  legion  into  winter  quarters  at  Greenville.  The 
mounted  volunteers,  who  had  suffered  severely  from  sick- 
ness, had  been  dismissed  some  time  before 


SECOND    SESSION    OF    THE   THIRD    CONGRESS 

The  day  fixed  for  the  opening  of  the  session  of  Con-  CHAPTER 
gress  was  the  fourth  of  November.      Washington  had___ 
hastened  back  from  Bedford  in  order  to  be  present;   but  179 1- 
it  was  two  weeks  before  a  quorum  of  the  Senate  was 
obtained. 

While  the  Senate  were  waiting  for  a  quorum,  the 
House  took  up  a  report  on  the  standing  rules  and  orders 
made  at  the  last  session,  but  not  acted  upon.  Hitherto 
there  had  been  but  one  standing  committee,  that  on 
Elections  :  the  amended  rules  and  orders  provided  for  an- 
other on  Private  Claims,  which  already  began  to  occupy 
no  inconsiderable  part  of  the  time  of  the  House.  Hith- 
erto it  had  been  the  custom  to  refer  petitions  of  this  sort 
to  one  or  the  other  of  the  secretaries  for  report ;  but 
Hamilton,  to  whose  share  most  of  this  business  had 
fallen,  had  loudly  complained  of  the  burden.  He  had 
requested  the  adoption  of  some  other  organ  of  investiga- 
tion ;  and  hence  this  new  standing  committee. 

The  late  insurrectionary  movements  in  Western  Penn- 
sylvania formed  the  main  subject  of  the  president's 
speech  :  their  origin,  progress,  and  the  means  finally  No  t  u 
adopted  for  their  suppression.  Among  the  causes  of  the 
extremity  to  which  things  had  been  carried,  the  speech 
alluded  to  certain  "  self-created  societies"  which  had 
taken  upon  themselves  to  criticise  and  condemn  the  gov- 
ernment, and  to  stimulate  resistance  to  the  laws,  the 
president  leaving  it  to  the  "  calm  reflection"  of  the  peo- 
ple to  determine  whether  the  insurrection  had  not  been 
fomented  "  by  combinations  of  men,  who,  from  an  igno- 
ranca  or  perversion  of  facts,  had  disseminated  suspicions, 
jealousies,  and  accusations  of  the  whole  government,  care- 
less of  consequences,  or  forgetful  that  those  who  rouse 
can  not  always  appease  a  civil  convulsion." 

Another  important  paragraph  referred  to  the  foreign 


»!^4r  HISTORY   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 

HAPTEH  policy  of  the  government,  which  had  been,  so  the  speech 

declared,  "  to  cultivate  peace  with  all  the  world;  to  ob- 

>?94.  serve  treaties  with  pure  and  absolute  faith;  to  check 
every  deviation  from  the  line  of  impartiality  ;  to  explain 
what  may  have  been  misapprehended,  and  to  correct 
what  may  have  been  injurious  to  any  nation ;  and  hav- 
ing thus  acquired  the  right,  to  lose  no  time  in  acquiring 
the  ability,  to  insist  on  justice  being  done  to  ourselves." 

The  recommendations  of  the  speech  were,  a  complete 
organization  of  the  militia ;  further  attention  to  fortifi- 
cations ;  the  promotion  of  friendly  relations  with  the  In- 
dians by  the  establishment  of  public  trading  houses ; 
and  the  adoption  of  some  regular  system  for  the  final 
redemption  of  the  public  debt. 

Though  the  leaders  of  the  Republican  opposition  were 
Dy  no  means  willing  to  identify  themselves  with  the 
Democratic  societies,  they  were  not  the  less  disinclined 
to  give  offense  to  allies  so  useful  in  undermining  and 
breaking  down  the  existing  administration.  In  spite, 
however,  of  the  efforts  of  Burr  and  Jackson,  the  Senate, 
in  their  answer  to  the  president's  speech,  fully  responded 
to  his  sentiments,  giving  to  them,  indeed,  a  more  em- 
phatic expression.  "  Our  anxiety,  arising  from  the  li- 
centious and  open  resistance  to  the  laws  in  the  western 
counties  of  Pennsylvania,  has  been  increased  by  the  pro- 
ceedings of  certain  self-created  societies,  relative  to  the 
laws  and  administration  of  the  government,  proceedings, 
in  our  apprehension,  founded  in  political  error,  calculated, 
if  not  intended,  to  disorganize  our  government,  and 
which,  by  inspiring  delusive  hopes  of  support,  have  been 
instrumental  in  misleading  our  fellow-citizens  in  the  scene 
of  insurrection." 

The  answer  of  the  House,  as  originally  reported,  took 
no  notice  of  the  president's  allusion  to  the  Democratic 


DEBATE  ON  THE  ADDRESS.          525 

clubs.  Fitzsimmons  proposed  an  amendment  reprobating  CHAPTER 
the  "self-created  societies,"  "  which,  by  deceiving  and 
inflaming  the  ignorant  and  the  weak,  may  naturally  be  1794. 
supposed  to  have  stimulated  the  insurrection,"  "institu-  ^ov- 24 
tions  not  strictly  unlawful,  yet  not  less  fatal  to  good  or- 
der and  true  liberty,  and  reprehensible  in  the  degree 
that  our  system  of  government  approaches  to  perfect  po- 
litical freedom."  In  opposing  this  motion,  Giles  took 
special  care  to  disclaim  any  connection  whatever  with 
the  Democratic  societies,  an  example  followed  by  all  the 
speakers  on  that  side.  He  took  care,  also,  to  preface  his 
speech  with  a  high  eulogium  on  the  president.  But  he 
insisted  that  the  term  "  self-created  societies"  involved 
all  voluntary  societies  whatever  ;  that  the  right  of  cen- 
sure was  sacred ;  and  that  the  societies  attacked  would 
retort.  Lyman,  Nicholas,  and  M'Dowell  opposed  the 
amendment  on  similar  grounds.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
was  urged  by  Smith  of  South  Carolina,  Tracy,  and  Day- 
ton, that  the  question  was  not  whether  these  societies 
were  legal,  but  whether  they  were  mischievous.  If  they 
were  so,  the  House  ought  to  declare  it,  and  not,  by  si- 
lence, give  an  implied  contradiction  to  the  president's 
statements. 

At  Murray's  suggestion,  Fitzsimmons  modified  his 
proposed  amendment  into  a  mere  echo  of  the  president's 
speech.  "We  can  entertain  no  doubt  that  certain  self, 
created  societies  and  combinations  of  men,  careless  of 
consequences  and  disregarding  the  truth,  by  dissemina- 
ting suspicions,  jealousies,  and  accusations  of  the  gov- 
ernment, have  had  all  the  agency  you  ascribe  to  them 
in  fomenting  this  daring  outrage  against  social  order  and 
the  authority  of  the  law."  To  get  rid  of  any  specific 
allusion  to  their  friends  the  Democrats,  it  was  moved,  on 
behalf  of  the  opposition,  to  strike  out  "  self-constituted 


026  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CM \PTER  societies."     On  this  motion  a  warm  debate  followed.     It 

vir 
' was  suggested  by  those  in  favor  of  retaining  the  words, 

1791.  that,  however  the  formation  of  political  clubs  might  bo 
justified  in  countries  without  any  regular  organ  of  pub- 
lic opinion,  that  here,  where  abundant  means  were  pro- 
vided for  expressing  public  opinion  in  a  constitutional 
way,  they  were  quite  out  of  place,  and  a  sort  of  usurpa 
tion.  "  It  has  been  argued,"  said  Sedgwick,  "  that  to 
censure  these  societies  might  be  construed  into  an  at- 
tack on  the  freedom  of  public  discussion.  He  was  sorry 
to  see  a  disposition  to  confound  freedom  and  licentious- 
ness. Was  there  not  an  obvious  distinction  between  a 
cool,  dispassionate,  honest,  and  candid  discussion,  and  a 
false,  wicked,  seditious  misrepresentation  of  public  men 
and  public  measures  ?  The  former  was  within  the  prov- 
ince of  freemen  ;  it  was,  indeed,  their  duty  ;  the  latter 
was  inconsistent  with  moral  rectitude,  and  tended  to  the 
destruction  of  freedom  and  to  the  production  of  every 
evil  that  could  afflict  a  community.  No  boundary,  per- 
haps, could  be  accurately  drawn  by  which  the  one  might 
in  all  instances  be  subjected  to  punishment  without  en- 
dangering the  other ;  nevertheless,  that  boundary  was 
distinctly  marked  in  the  mind  of  every  man  correctly 
instructed  in  morals  and  politics. 

"  These  societies,"  the  origin  of  which  he  traced  to 
Genet,  "  self-created,  without  delegation  or  control,  not 
emanating  from  the  people  or  responsible  to  them,  not 
open  in  their  deliberations,  not  admitting  any  but  those 
of  their  own  political  opinions,  permanent  in  their  con- 
stitution, and  of  unlimited  duration,  had  modestly  as- 
sumed the  character  of  popular  instructors,  guardians  of 
the  people,  guardians  of  the  government.  Every  man 
in  the  administration  who  had  assented  to  its  acts  they 
had  loaded  with  every  species  of  calumny — slanders  which 


DEBATE    ON   THE  ADDRESS.  52? 

they  knew  to  be  such.      They  had  not  even  spared  that  CUAPTEH 

aharacter  supposed  to  have  been  clothed  with  inviolabili- 

ty — not  the  paltry  inviolability  of  constitutional  proscrip-  1794 
tion.   but   an    inviolability  infinitely   more    respectable, 
founded  on  the  public  gratitude,  and  resulting  from  dis- 
interested and  invaluable  services." 

Sedgwick's  impetuous  attack  roused  the  sensibilities 
of  several  of  the  Virginia  members,  but  none  ventured 
upon  any  positive  vindication  of  the  Democratic  socie- 
ties. Rutherford  insisted  that  the  president  only  alluded 
to  combinations  west  of  the  mountains.  Parker  denied 
the  influence  of  the  Democratic  societies  in  promoting 
the  insurrection.  Giles,  whose  chief  distinction  was  his 
denunciatory  style  of  eloquence,  expressed  great  alarm 
at  the  idea  of  introducing  denunciations  into  the  House. 
He  seemed  to  think  that  Sedgwick  was  treading  in  the 
steps  of  Robespierre,  and  endeavored  to  neutralize  the 
effect  of  his  speech  by  an  insolent  personal  attack  upon 
his  style  of  oratory.  Many  of  the  members  of  Demo- 
cratic societies  had  served  in  the  militia  against  the  in- 
surgents, and  he  regarded  such  sweeping  attacks  upon 
them  as  very  unfair. 

The  motion  to  strike  out  the  words  "self-created  so- 
cieties" was  carried  in  committee  forty-seven  to  forty- 
five.  But  the  struggle  was  renewed  in  the  House  by 
Ames  and  Dexter  on  the  one  side,  and  Madison,  Nicholas, 
and  Baldwin  on  the  other,  and  the  vote  of  the  committee  Nov.  2 
was  exactly  reversed.  The  opposition,  however,  imme- 
diately rallied  on  a  new  motion  to  add  a  clause  restrict- 
ing what  was  said  of  self-created  societies  and  combina- 
tions of  men  to  such  as  existed  in  "  the  four  western 
counties  of  Pennsylvania  and  parts  adjacent,"  and  this 
amendment  they  carried  by  the  casting  vote  of  the 
speaker.  It  was  attempted  to  offset  this  addition  by 


528  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  -joining  to  it  "  countenanced  by  self-created  societies  else 

VII 

'      where ;"    but   this   was   lost,   forty-two   to  fifty.      The 

1794.  amended  amendment  was  then  rejected,  only  nineteen 

rising  in  its  favor,  thus  leaving  the  address  as  originally 

Nov.  28.  reported.      The  matter  was  compromised  the  next  day 

by  inserting  a  paragraph  declaring  the  great  concern  of 

the  House  "  that  any  misrepresentations  whatever  of  the 

government  and  its  proceedings,  either  by  individuals  or 

combinations  of  men,  should  have  been  made,  and  so  far 

have  been  credited  as  to  foment  the  flagrant  outrage 

which  had  been  committed  on  the  laws." 

It  was  evident  from  this  debate,  and  the  votes  taken 
in  the  course  of  it,  that  the  opposition  had  lost  ground 
in  the  House.  Indeed,  they  had  evinced  great  anxiety 
to  avoid  any  division.  But  their  weakness  became  still 
more  manifest  in  an  attempt  on  their  side  to  amend  the 
address.  By  way  of  answer  to  the  president's  exposi- 
tion of  his  foreign  policy,  Madison  proposed  that  the 
House  declare  their  approval  of  "  a  policy  in  foreign 
transactions  which  never  loses  sight  of  the  blessings  of 
peace."  But  this  phraseology  seemed  suspicious  to  the 
Federalists.  Not  only  did  it  avoid  any  direct  approval 
of  the  president's  policy,  but  it  might  be  understood  tc 
imply  a  doubt  on  the  subject.  To  get  rid  of  this  am- 
biguity, it  was  moved  to  substitute  "  your"  instead  of 
"  a,"  thus  directly  approving  the  policy  of  the  president. 
This  change  was  contested  in  a  three  days'  debate,  during 
which  the  ardent  Nicholas  disclosed  every  thing  which 
the  more  cautious  Madison  had  desired  to  conceal ;  and 
though  the  original  phraseology  was  supported  by  Day- 
ton and  one  or  two  others,  who  voted  usually  with  the 
Federalists,  Madison  thought  it  most  discreet  to  avoid  a 
decision  by  withdrawing  his  motion. 

Pending  this  ten  days'  debate   on   the   address,   the 


JEFFERSON   ON   THE   EXCISE  529 

House  had  already  passed  an  act  authorizing  the  continu-  CHAPTER 

ance  of  Morgan's  detachment  at  the  scene  of  the  late  in-  _ 

surrection.      For  the  payment  of  the  expenses  incurred  1.794. 
by  the  expedition,  the  sum  of  $1,122,569  was  appro- 
priated, besides  $100,632  for  the  support  of  Morgan's 
detachment.      To  fill  up  the  void  in  the  treasury,  a  tem- 
porary loan  of  two  millions  was  authorized. 

The  subdued  tameness  of  the  opposition  by  no  means 
came  up  to  Jefferson's  ideas.  "  With  respect  to  the 
transactions  against  the  Excise  Law,"  so  he  wrote  to  Dec.  ** 
Madison,  "  it  appears  to  me  that  you  are  all  swept  away 
in  the  torrent  of  governmental  opinions,  or  that  we  do 
not  know  what  those  transactions  have  been.  We  know 
of  none  which,  according  to  the  definitions  of  the  law. 
have  been  any  thing  more  than  riotous.  There  was, 
indeed,  a  meeting  to  consult  about  a  separation ;  but  to 
consult  on  a  question  does  not  amount  to  a  determination 
of  that  question  in  the  affirmative,  still  less  to  the  acting 
on  such  a  determination  ;  but  we  shall  see,  I  suppose, 
what  the  court  lawyers,  and  courtly  judges,  and  would- 
be  embassadors  will  make  of  it.  The  Excise  Law  is  an 
infernal  one.  The  first  error  was  to  admit  it  by  the 
Constitution  ;  the  second,  to  act  on  that  admission  ;  the 
third  and  last  will  be  to  make  it  the  instrument  of  dis- 
membering the  Union,  and  setting  us  afloat  to  choose 
what  part  of  it  we  will  adhere  to.  The  information  of 
our  militia  returned  from  the  westward  is  uniform,  that, 
though  the  people  there  let  them  pass  quietly,  they  were 
objects  of  their  laughter,  not  of  their  fear  ;  that  one  thou- 
sand men  could  have  cut  off  their  whole  force  in  a  th  ">u- 
sand  places  of  the  Allegany  ;  that  their  detestation  of 
the  Excise  Law  is  universal,  and  has  now  associated  to 
\t  a  detestation  of  the  government ;  and  that  separation, 
which,  perhaps,  was  a  very  distant  and  problematical 
TV._L  L 


530  HISTORY    OF   THE    UJNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  event,  is  now  near,  and  certain,  and  determined  in  the 

VII 

'  mind  of  every  man.  I  expected  to  have  seen  some  jus- 
1794.  tification  of  arming  one  part  of  the  society  against  an- 
other;  of  declaring  a  civil  war  the  moment  before  the 
meeting  of  that  body  which  has  the  sole  right  of  declar- 
ing war ;  of  being  so  patient  of  the  kicks  and  scoffs  of 
our  enemies,  and  rising  at  a  feather  against  our  friends ; 
of  adding  a  million  to  the  public  debt,  and  deriding  us 
with  recommendations  to  pay  it  if  we  can."  In  tho 
midst  of  all  this  sympathy  for  the  whisky  rebels,  the 
cause  of  the  clubs  was  not  forgotten.  "  The  denuncia- 
tion of  the  Democratic  societies  is  one  of  the  extraordi- 
nary acts  of  boldness  of  which  we  have  seen  so  many 
from  the  faction  of  monocrats.  It  is  wonderful,  indeed, 
that  the  president  should  have  permitted  himself  to  be 
the  organ  of  such  an  attack  on  the  freedom  of  discussion, 
the  freedom  of  writing,  printing,  and  publishing."  "  I 
have  put  out  of  sight  the  persons  whose  misbehavior  has 
been  taken  advantage  of  to  slander  the  friends  of  popu- 
lar rights,  and  I  am  happy  to  observe  that,  as  far  as  the 
circle  of  my  observation  and  information  extends,  every 
body  has  lost  sight  of  them,  and  views  the  abstract  at- 
tempt on  their  natural  and  constitutional  rights  in  all  its 
nakedness.  I  have  never  heard  or  read  of  a  single  ex- 
pression or  opinion  which  did  not  condemn  it  as  an  inex- 
cusable aggression." 

It  seems  a  little  extraordinary  that  Jefferson  and  that 
circle  of  his  political  friends  whose  opinions  he  thus  con- 
veyed to  Madison  were  not  willing  to  allow  to  the  Pres- 
ident and  Congress  of  the  United  States,  the  chosen  and 
constitutional  organs  of  the  people,  that  same  "freedom 
of  discussion,  of  writing,  printing,  and  publishing," 
claimed  so  zealously  for  the  democratic  societies.  Those 
societies  might  say  what  they  pleased,  might  denounce 


DEMOCRATIC    CLUBS. 

whom  they  pleased,  might  charge  the  president  and  Con-  CHAPTER 

gress  with  designs  no  matter  how  atrocious,  and  those 

so  denounced  were  to  Bear  it  all  without  any  retort,  lest,  17°4 
by  warning  the  public  against  these  societies,  they  should 
interfere  with  the  right  of  public  discussion!  Had  not 
Washington  as  much  a  right  to  denounce  the  Democratic 
societies  as  they  had  to  denounce  him  and  his  cabinet  ? 
Was  it  net  a  reasonable  retort,  and  a  necessary  means 
of  self-defense  ? 

But  already  these  volunteer  associations  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  country  had  experienced  a  blow  more  fa- 
tal than  any  that  Washington  could  deal.  The  downfall 
of  Robespierre  had  been  speedily  followed  by  the  down- 
fall of  the  Jacobin  Club,  the  great  instrument  of  his  pow- 
er. Not  confining  itself  to  denunciations  merely,  the 
Convention  had  first  cut  off  the  connection  between  the 
Paris  club  and  the  affiliated  branches,  and  when  this  did 
not  sufficiently  answer,  had  turned  the  members  out  and 
locked  the  doors.  Monroe,  who  had  lately  arrived  in  Par- 
is, and  who  saw  in  the  Convention  the  grand  exemplar 
of  republican  wisdom,  hastened  to  vindicate  their  pro- 
ceedings in  this  respect,  which  might  otherwise  have  ap- 
peared a  little  arbitrary,  by  a  long  historical  dispatch, 
going  to  show  that  the  club  had  interfered  with  the  busi- 
ness of  the  government,  and  that  the  real  question  had 
been,  which  should  have  the  direction  of  affairs,  the  Jac- 
obins or  the  Convention.  This  dispatch  arrived  very 
seasonably.  It  went  entirely  to  confirm  the  views  taken 
by  Washington  and  the  Federalists,  and  the  government 
hastened  to  publish  it,  though  without  Monroe's  name. 
Of  course,  the  republican  wisdom  of  the  French  Con- 
vention  was  not  to  be  disputed  by  the  other  side,  and 
the  Democratic  clubs  soon  sunk  into  discredit  and  ob- 
scurity. 


532  HISTORY   OF   THE   UJMiL'D  STATUS. 

CHAPTER  A  project  of  Madisor.'s  for  excluding  foreign  resident4! 
.....'  in  America  from  an  equal  participation  with  citizens  in 
1794  commercial  privileges,  aimed  against  those  British  agents 
by  whom  a  large  part  of  the  trade  of  the  Southern  States 
still  continued  to  be  carried  on,  resulted  in  a  new  natu- 
ralization act,  A  much  larger  stream  of  immigration 
was  now  setting  into  the  United  States  than  at  any  time 
since  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Many  of  the 
banished  French  nobility  and  many  of  the  discontented 
Irish  sought  refuge  there  ;  and  what  with  fear  of  foreign 
aristocrats  and  fear  of  foreign  Democrats,  both  parties 
were  willing  to  render  naturalization  more  difficult.  By 
the  new  act,  the  provisions  of  which  still  continue  irt 
force,  the  preliminary  residence  necessary  to  citizenship 
was  extended  to  five  years  ;  a  three  years'  previous  dec- 
laration (to  be  made  in  some  court  of  record)  of  intention 
to  become  a  citizen  was  also  required  ;  and  a  residence 
for  one  year  in  the  state  where  the  naturalization  should 
be  had.  The  new  citizen  was  also  called  upon  to  re- 
nounce forever  all  allegiance  and  fidelity  to  any  foreign 
prince  or  state ;  and,  if  he  had  borne  any  title  of  nobili- 
ty, he  must  also  make  an  express  renunciation  of  it. 

When  this  latter  provision  was  first  suggested  by 
Giles,  it  encountered,  much  to  his  disgust,  a  good  deal  of 
ridicule  from  some  of  the  New  England  Federalists. 
Why  require  the  renunciation  of  a  mere  title,  which 
carried  with  it  no  privilege ;  a  mere  matter  of  courtesy 
which  it  might  seem  churlish  to  refuse,  and  especially 
so  to  require  a  formal  renunciation  of  it  from  an  un- 
happy exile  who  had  lost  at  home,  and,  by  the  very  act 
of  becoming  a  citizen,  renounced  here  all  the  privileges 
which  his  title  might  once  have  carried  with  it.  The 
whole  proceeding  was  at  onco  nugatory  and  ridiculous 
The  very  judge  who  administered  the  oath  or  pledge 


TITLES    OF    NOBILITY— SLAVE-HOLDING.        53.0 
jf  renunciation    might  the    next   moment   address    the  CHAPTEU 

VII. 

newly-admitted  citizen  as  count,  marquis,  or  my  lord  ; _„ 

and  what  was  the  help  for  it?  Why  not,  said  Dex-  1794. 
ter,  require  the  new  citizen  to  renounce  his  connection 
with  the  Jacobin  Club,  should  he  happen  to  be  a  mem- 
ber of  it  ?  .  Why  not  require  him  to  renounce  the  pope  ? 
Priestcraft  he  thought  to  be  quite  as  dangerous  as  aris- 
tocracy. 

By  presently  calling  for  the  yeas  and  nays,  Giles  placed  1795, 
those  who  had  thus  ridiculed  his  proposition  in  an  awk-  JaiL  l 
ward  dilemma.  They  must  now  submit  to  the  mortifi- 
cation of  voting  for  it,  or  else  allow  themselves  to  be  held 
up  to  the  nation  as  friends  of  aristocracy  and  lovers  of  ti- 
tles. As  to  this  matter,  Sedgwick  and  Dexter  stood  upon 
very  delicate  ground.  Both  represented  districts  in  which 
parties  were  very  equally  divided.  At  a  recent  election 
there  had  been  no  choice,  and  new  trials  were  soon  to 
be  had.  By  way  of  forcing  Giles  to  abandon  his  call 
for  the  yeas  and  nays,  Dexter  moved  an  additional  amend- 
ment, that  in  case  the  applicant  for  citizenship  were  a 
slave-holder,  he  should  renounce,  along  with  his  titles  of 
nobility,  all  his  claim,  right,  and  title  as  an  owner  of 
slaves.  This  motion  produced  a  very  great  excitement 
among  the  Southern  members.  Rutherford  objected  to 
it  that  it  went  to  wound  the  feelings  and  alienate  the 
affections  of  six  or  eight  states  of  the  Union.  He  thought 
Giles's  motion  ought  to  be  adopted,  because  it  would 
highly  gratify  the  people  of  America;  but  he  was  quite 
willing  to  give  up  the  yeas  and  nays.  McDowell  of  North 
Carolina  declared  the  proposed  amendment  to  be  an  in- 
direct attack  upon  the  Constitution  and  on  those  mem- 
bers who  held  slaves.  It  tended  to  irritate  not  only  the 
Southern  members,  but  thousands  of  good  citizens  in  the 
Southern  States,  affecting,  as  it  did,  the  property  they 


534  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  had  acquired  by  their  industry.  Who  dared  to  say  that 
men  holding  slaves  were  unfit  for  office  in  republican 
1  795.  governments  !  Let  the  House  decide  whether  its  South- 
ern members  did  not  partake  more  of  the  republican 
spirit  than  those  from  the  Eastern  States !  What  right 
had  Congress  to  exclude  a  particular  class  of  .people  from 
holding  the  same  property  with  others  ?  When  thou- 
sands of  slave-holders  had  so  lately  been  slaughtered  and 
thousands  had  fled  for  refuge  to  this  country,  where  the 
masters  of  slaves  could  only  keep  them  in  peace  with  the 
greatest  difficulty,  was  this  the  time  for  such  inflamma- 
tory motions  ? 

Giles,  who  saw  the  awkwardness  of  voting  in  the 
same  breath  against  titles  of  nobility  and  in  favor  of 
slave-holding,  professed  his  readiness  to  give  up  the  yeas 
and  nays.  Holding  property  to  be  sacred,  he  never 
could  consent  to  prohibit  immigrants  from  holding  slaves. 
As  to  titles  of  nobility,  they  were  but  a  name,  and  no- 
body was  obliged  to  give  them  up  unless  he  wanted  tc 
become  an  American  citizen. 

Lee  came  to  the  aid  of  his  Northern  friends  in  a  very 
sarcastic  speech.  The  mischiefs,  so  he  argued,  expe- 
rienced from  orders  of  nobility  did  not  flow  from  the 
names  by  which  those  orders  were  distinguished,  but 
from  their  privileges  as  to  property  and  political  rights 
Apart  from  those  privileges,  titles  were  mere  empty  gew 
gaws.  According  to  his  colleague  (Giles),  the  reason 
why  a  foreign  nobleman  could  not  become  a  good  citizen 
was,  the  nature  of  his  education,  the  superiority  which 
he  had  been  accustomed  to  exercise  over  his  fellow-men, 
the  servile  court  he  had  been  used  to  receive.  Apply 
this  same  reasoning  to  the  existing  relation  of  master  and 
slave  in  the  Southern  States — one  rather  more  objection- 
able than  even  that  of  lord  and  vassal — and  it  would  go 


TITLES    OF    NOBILITY— SLAVE-HOLDING.         53  £ 

far  to  prove  that  the  people  of  those  states  were  not  qual-  CHAPTEK 

ified  to  be  members  of  a  free  republic.      Bat  this  they 

all  knew  was  not  the  fact.  Though  the  representatives  1795. 
from  Virginia  did  hold  slaves,  their  hearts,  he  was  sure, 
glowed  with  as  warm  a  zeal  for  the  equal  rights  and 
happiness  of  man  as  those  of  the  gentlemen  from  parts 
of  the  Union  where  this  degrading  distinction  did  not 
exist.  Still  he  did  not  think  that  the  citizens  of  the 
South  could  justly  assume  a  superiority  in  political  vir- 
tue over  their  fellow-citizens  of  the  East.  Not  to  be 
behind  them  was  sufficient  glory.  The  demand  for  the 
yeas  and  nays  had  given  a  certain  importance  to  a  prop- 
osition which  before  he  had  considered  as  utterly  frivo- 
lous. It  was  calculated,  he  hoped  not  intended,  to  spread 
an  alarm  that  aristocracy  was  coming  to  swallow  us  up, 
and  to  hold  up  certain  gentlemen  who  had  opposed  the 
motion  as  the  friends  of  aristocracy.  He  felt  it  to  be 
his  duty  to  discountenance  any  measure  tending  to  ex- 
cite groundless  and  unjust  alarms,  suspicions,  and  jeal- 
ousies ;  and,  though  personally  very  indifferent  to  the 
matter,  he  should  on  that  account  vote  against  the  orig- 
inal motion. 

Smith  of  Maryland  was  desirous  that  the  original 
motion  might  be  allowed  to  pass  without  opposition. 
"  The  gentlemen  from  the  Eastern  States,  who  knew  the 
republican  character  of  their  constituents,  and  how  in- 
dependent every  man  there  is,  both  in  his  temper  and 
his  circumstances,  had  slighted  the  amendment  as  un- 
necessary. Gentlemen  from  the  Southern  States,  on  the 
other  hand,  say  that  they  have  reasons  for  apprehension. 
Why  will  not  the  Eastern  members  indulge  us  in  this 
trifle  ?"  The  matter  seemed  likely  to  be  thus  arranged. 
Dexter  had  withdrawn  his  motion  in  expectation  that 
the  call  for  the  yeas  and  nays  would  be  dropped,  when 


536      HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  Nicholas  broke  out  with  great  fury,  declared  that  h« 
'      « thoroughly  despised"  Dexter's  motion,  and  insisted  on 
1795.  having  the  yeas  and  nays.      Dexter   then  renewed  his 
motion,    which    was    lost,    twenty-eight    to    sixty-four. 
Giles's  motion  was  carried,  and  the  renunciation  of  titles 
of  nobility  incorporated  into  the  bill,  fifty-eight  to  thirty- 
two.      At  the  new  election  in  his  district  Dexter  failed 
to  be  chosen,  partly,  perhaps,  on  account  of  his  vote  on 
this  occasion. 

The  leading  measure  of  the  session  was  an  act  pro 
viding  for  the  gradual  redemption  of  the  public  debt, 
founded  on  a  plan  furnished  by  Hamilton,  but  varying 
from  it  in  several  particulars.  There  .had  been  already 
purchased  up,  under  the  provisions  made  for  that  pur- 
pose, $2,268,022  of  the  public  stocks,  which  amount 
stood  in  the  name  of  the  commissioners  for  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  public  debt,  the  interest  upon  it  being  appli- 
cable to  further  purchases. 

Exclusive  of  these  stocks,  the  total  amount  of  the 
public  debt  was  as  follows  :  Foreign  debt  (including 
$2,024,900  still  due  to  the  French  government,  also 
$1,128,599  of  the  two  millions  authorized  to  be  borrow- 
ed for  the  use  of  the  commissioners),  $14,599,129;  six 
per  cent,  stock  bearing  a  present  interest,  $28,165,568 
deferred  six  per  cent,  stock,  $13,651,365  ;  three  per  cent, 
stock,  $18,972,980  ;  unsubscribed  debt  estimated  at 
$1,501,175 ;  making  a  total  of  $76,950,218.  To  this 
was  to  be  added  about  five  millions  of  temporary  loans,  in- 
cluding the  $1,400,000  still  due  on  the  subscription  to 
the  bank,  against  which,  however,  might  be  offset  the  bank 
stock,  worth  two  millions  at  par,  and  more  in  the  market: 
also  the  balance  in  the  treasury,  and  the  outstanding 
duty  bonds.  The  foreign  debt  fell  due  by  installments 
at  short  periods  ;  the  six  per  cent,  stocks  could  only  bo 


SINKING   FUND.  537 

paid  at  the  rate  of  eight  dollars  a  year  on  every  hund-  CHAPTEH 
red,  interest  included  ;   the  three  per  cents,  were  redeem-  . 

able  at  the  pleasure  of  the  government.  The  annual  rev-  1795. 
enue,  looking  to  past  receipts,  was  estimated  at  six  mill- 
ions and  a  half,  and  the  expenditures,  including  some 
three  millions  and  more  for  interest,  at  $5,700,000;  but 
a  considerable  part  of  this  revenue  was  derived  from  du- 
ties and  taxes  laid  for  limited  periods. 

By  the  new  act  the  entire  management  of  the  public 
debt  was  taken  from  the  Treasury  Department  and  vested 
in  the  Commissioners  of  the  Sinking  Fund,  to  whose  use 
was  appropriated  so  much  of  the  annual  income  from  the 
impost,  tonnage,  and  excise  as  might  be  necessary  to  pay 
the  interest  upon  all  descriptions  of  the  public  debt ;  also 
the  remaining  installments  due  to  the  bank,  and  that 
portion  of  the  six  per  cent,  stocks  annually  payable  by 
the  contract.  To  insure  these  payments,  the  temporary 
duties  on  imposts  were  made  permanent,  and  the  other 
temporary  taxes  were  continued  till  the  1st  of  March, 
1801.  These  payments,  thus  made,  would  complete  the 
redemption  of  the  six  per  cent,  stocks  within  twenty- 
three  years  from  the  commencement  of  the  process:  the 
six  per  cents.,  on  which  interest  was  already  payable,  in 
1818  ;  the  deferred  six  per  cents.,  in  1824.  While 
these  payments  were  thus  going  on,  it  was  hoped  to  ex- 
tinguish the  three  per  cents,  by  purchases  on  the  part 
of  the  sinking  fund,  to  the  use  of  which  were  appropri- 
ated the  interest  on  the  stocks  held  by  the  commission- 
ers, the  surplus  of  the  bank  dividends  above  the  interest 
on  the  bank  debt,  such  sums  as  might  accrue  from  the 
sale  of  public  lands,  the  proceeds  of  old  debts  to  the  gov- 
ernment originating  before  the  adoption  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, and  all  unexpended  surpluses  of  appropriations  not 
reappropriated  at  the  ensuing  session.  By  applying  to 
the  extinction  of  the  foreign  debt  the  means  of  redemption 


538  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  successively  set  free  in  1818  and  1824,  it  was  calculated 

that  the  whole  debt  might  be  extinguished  in  1826. 
1795.  Previous  to  the  final  passage  of  this  act,  which,  by 
providing  for  the  discharge  of  the  entire  debt,  gave  com- 
pletion to  the  funding  system,  Hamilton  had  resigned  his 
office.  He  had  for  some  time  contemplated  retirement, 
but  had  delayed  it  first  to  give  Congress  an  opportunity 
to  investigate  his  official  conduct,  and  afterward  on  ac- 
count of  the  threatening  appearance  of  public  affairs. 
During  his  six  years  of  public  service,  he  had  placed  the 
fiscar concerns  of  the  United  States  on  a  solid  founda- 
tion— that,  indeed,  upon  which  they  have  ever  since 
rested.  The  investigations  into  his  conduct,  dictated  by 
the  suspicions  of  his  enemies,  had  resulted  altogether  to 
his  advantage.  His  whole  scheme  being  now  complete, 
and  his  official  integrity  thoroughly  vindicated,  he  could 
safely  leave  to  the  administration  of  others  that  system 
which  his  genius  had  organized.  Not  possessing,  like  his 
Democratic  rivals,  Jefferson  and  Madison,  the  advantage 
of  a  paternal  inheritance  cultivated  by  slaves,  Hamilton 
resumed  the  practice  of  the  law.  The  inadequacy  of  his 
salary,  especially  as  he  had  a  numerous  family  to  pro- 
vide for,  had  indeed  formed  his  prevailing  reason  for  giv- 
ing up  his  office.  Knox,  for  similar  pecuniary  reasons, 
had  resigned  a  few  weeks  before.  His  post  was  given 
to  Timothy  Pickering,  and  that  of  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury to  Oliver  Wolcott,  who  had  served  under  Hamilton 
since  the  first  organization  of  the  department,  first  as 
auditor,  and  then  as  controller.  Joseph  Habersham,  of 
Georgia,  succeeded  Pickering  as  post-master  general. 

The  appropriations  for  the  service  of  the  current  year 
amounted  to  near  three  millions  and  a  half,  to  meet 
which,  in  addition  to  the  interest  on  the  debt,  six  millions 
arid  a  half  of  dollars  would  be  necessary — an  amount  to 
which  the  revenue  hardly  reached. 


JAY'S    NEGOTIATION.  539 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

fAY'S  TREATY.  FIRST  SESSION  OF  THE  FOURTH  CON- 
GRESS.  TREATIES  WITH  THE  NORTHWESTERN  IN- 
DIANS, WITH  ALGIERS,  AND  SPAIN.  DISCUSSION  AS  TO 
THE  TREATY-MAKING  POWER.  TENNESSEE.  AFFAIRS 
OF  THE  STATES. 

*J N  his  arrival  in  England,  Jay  had  been  treated  with  CHAPTEI 

great  courtesy.     Every  disposition  had  been  expressed  by 

Lord  Grenville,  then  at  the  head  of  foreign   affairs,  to  1794, 
bring  the  negotiation  to  a  successful  issue;  but  so  oppo-    ' une' 
site  on  several  points  were  the  views  entertained  by  the 
two  nations  as  to  their  rights  and  interests,  that  to  ac- 
complish this  result  was  no  easy  matter. 

The  Americans  complained  that,  contrary  to  an  ex- 
press provision  of  the  treaty  of  peace,  a  large  number 
of  negroes  had  been  carried  off  by  the  evacuating  British 
armies  ;  and  for  the  loss  thus  inflicted  on  the  owners 
compensation  was  demanded.  They  complained,  also,  of 
the  detention  of  the  Western  posts,  to  which  mainly  the 
protracted  hostility  of  the  Northern  Indians  was  ascribed. 
They  alleged  numerous  invasions  of  their  neutral  rights, 
not  only  under  the  orders  of  council,  issued  as  instruc- 
tions to  the  British  cruisers,  but  in  the  capture,  and  the 
condemnation  by  the  local  admiralty  courts,  of  numer- 
ous vessels  upon  pretenses  false  or  frivolous.  Other  top- 
ics of  complaint,  not  less  serious,  were  the  impressment 
of  seamen  from  on  board  American  vessels,  and  the  ex- 
clusion of  American  shipping  from  the  trade  to  the  Brit- 
ish West  Indies. 

According  to  the  British  interpretation  of  the  treaty 


£40  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

CHAPTER  of  peace,  the  prohibition  as  to  negroes  did  not  apply  to 
nny  such  as  had  been  set  at  liberty  in  the  course  of  the 
1794.  war  under  proclamations   of  the   British   commanders; 
and  as  those  carried  away  were  all  of  that  sort,  any  com- 
pensation for  them  was  refused. 

The  subject  of  impressment  was  found  exceedingly  ' 
difficult  on  more  accounts  than  one.      The  only  adequate 
security  to  American  sailors  against  the  danger  of  im 
pressment  seemed  to  be  a  renunciation  on  the  part  of  the 
British  of  the  right  to  press  any  body  from  American  ves 
sels.     But  this  the  British  would  not  agree  to.      The 
number  of  British  sailors  in  the  American  merchant  serv 
ice  was  already  large.      Such  a  provision  would  greatly 
increase  it.      Obliged  as  she  was  in  the  present  struggle 
to  make  the  greatest  efforts,  Great  Britain  could  not,  at 
least  would  not,  give  up  so  important  a  resource  for  man 
ning  her  fleet.     It  was  maintained  on  the  American  side 
that  naturalized  citizens  had  the  same  rights  with   na- 
tive-born Americans,  and  ought  equally  to  be  protected 
against  impressment.     According  to  the  British  doctrine, 
no  man  had  a  right  to  renounce  his  allegiance,  nor  could 
British-born  sailors  thus  withdraw  themselves  from  the 
service  of  their  country.      The  claim  of  the  Americans 
to   an   equal  participation   in  the   trade  of  the   British 
West  Indies  was  regarded  by  England  as  quite  unrea- 
sonable, calling  upon  her,  as  it  did,  to  renounce  the  long- 
settled  principles  of  her  commercial  system ;   nor  could 
Jay  obtain  any  concessions  on  this  point  except  under 
very  onerous  conditions. 

But  the  matters  more  immediately  threatening  to  tho 
peace  of  the  two  countries  were  the  disputed  questions 
of  neutral  rights  and  the  detention  of  the  Western  posts. 
Judging  it  best  to  arrange  these  points,  though  obliged 
to  yield  as  to  the  others,  or  to  leave  them  for  future  no 


JAY'S    TREATS— ITS    PROVISIONS.  5  4  j 

gotiation,  Jay  was  induced  to  sign  a  treaty,  defective  in  CHAPTEF 
some  points  and  objectionable  in  others,  but  the  best  that  •  . 
oould  be  obtained.  i'794. 

This  treaty  provided  for  constituting  three  boards  of  ^ot<  1J 
commissioners  :  one  to  determine  the  eastern  boundary 
of  the  United  States,  by  fixing  on  the  river  intended  by 
the  treaty  of  peace  as  the  St.  Croix  ;  another  to  ascer- 
tain the  amount  of  losses  experienced  by  British  subjects 
in  consequence  of  legal  impediments  to  the  recovery  of 
British  anti-Revolutionary  debts,  which  amount,  so  as- 
certained, was  to  be  paid  by  the  government  of  the  United 
States ;  and  a  third  to  estimate  the  losses  sustained  by 
American  citizens  in  consequence  of  irregular  and  illegal 
captures  by  British  cruisers,  for  which  there  existed  no 
adequate  remedy  in  suits  at  law,  these  losses  to  be  paid 
by  the  British  government.  In  consideration  of  the  ar- 
rangement of  the  question  of  British  debts,  the  "Western 
posts  were  to  be  surrendered  on  the  first  of  June,  1796 ; 
the  present  residents  in  the  neighborhood  to  have  the  op- 
tion of  removing  or  of  becoming  American  citizens.  To 
give  both  nations  an  equal  chance  of  the  Indian  traffic, 
there  was  to  be  a  mutual  reciprocity  of  inland  trade  and 
intercourse  between  the  North  American  territories  of 
the  two  nations  (including  the  navigation  of  the  Missis- 
sippi), the  British  also  to  be  admitted  Into  all  the  Amer- 
ican harbors,  with  the  right  to  ascend  all  rivers  to  the 
highest  port  of  entry.  But  this  reciprocity  did  not  ex- 
tend to  the  territory  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  nor 
to  the  admission  of  American  vessels  into  the  harbors  of 
the  British  North  American  colonies,  nor  to  the  navigation 
of  the  rivers  of  those  colonies  below  the  highest  port  of 
entry.  No  objection  of  alienage  was  to  interfere  with 
the  possession  of  land  within  the  dominions  of  either 
power,  by  subjects  or  citizens  of  the  other,  as  existing  at 


542  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  date  of  the  treaty,  nor  with  its  regular  descent ;   nor, 

VIIJ. 

in  the  event  of  any  war  or  rupture,  was  there  to  bo  any 

1794.  confiscation  by  either  party  of  debts,  or  of  public  or  pri- 
vate stocks,  due  to  or  held  by  the  citizens  or  subjects  of 
the  other. 

These  first  ten  articles  were  declared  to  be  perpetual ; 
the  other  eighteen,  in  the  nature  of  a  treaty  of  commerce 
and  navigation,  were  limited  to  two  years  after  the  term- 
ination of  the  existing  war. 

They  provided  for  the  admission  of  American  vessels 
into  British  ports  in  Europe  and  the  East  Indies  on 
terms  of  equality  with  British  vessels  ;  but  no  stipulation 
could  be  obtained  as  to  the  East  Indian  coasting  trade, 
or  as  to  the  trade  between  Europe  and  the  British  East 
Indies,  participation  in  which  was  left  to  rest,  as  here- 
tofore, on  the  contingency  of  British  permission.  The 
right  was  also  reserved  to  the  British  to  meet,  by  coun- 
tervailing enactments,  the  existing  discriminations  in  the 
American  tonnage  and  import  duties.  The  Americans 
might  trade  to  the  British  West  Indies  in  vessels  not 
exceeding  seventy  tons  in  burden  ;  but  this  privilege 
could  only  be  purchased  by  renouncing  the  right,  during 
its  continuance,  to  transport  from  America  to  Europe 
any  of  the  principal  colonial  products.  British  vessels, 
with  their  cargoes,  were  to  be  admitted  into  American 
ports  without  any  further  addition  to  the  existing  dis- 
criminating duties,  and  on  the  terms  of  the  most  favored 
nation. 

Privateers  were  to  give  bonds,  with  security,  to  re- 
spond any  damages  they  might  commit  against  neutrals, 
and,  in  case  of  the  condemnation  of  any  vessel  as  prize, 
an  authenticated  copy  of  the  proceedings  was  to  be  fur- 
nished to  her  commander.  In  case  of  the  seizure  of  ves- 
sels on  suspicion  of  having  enemy's  property  on  board 


JAY'S    TREATY— ITS    PROVISIONS.  543 

the  examination  was  to  be  as  speedy  as  possible,  and  the  CIIAPTEE 

vessel,  with  the  neutral  part  of  her  cargo,  was  to  be  dis- 

missed.  The  list  of  contraband  articles  was  to  include,  1794. 
besides  ammunition  and  warlike  implements,  all  articles 
serving  directly  for  the  equipment  of  vessels,  except  un- 
wrought  iron  and  fir  plank.  Provisions  and  other  articles 
not  usually  contraband,  but  becoming  so  under  peculiar 
circumstances,  if  seized,  were  not  to  be  confiscated,  but 
were  to  be  paid  for  at  their  full  value.  No  vessel  at- 
tempting to  enter  a  blockaded  port  was  to  be  captured 
unless  she  had  first  been  notified  and  turned  away. 
Neither  nation  was  to  allow  enlistments  within  its  ter- 
ritory by  any  third  nation  at  war  with  the  other ;  nor 
were  the  citizens  or  subjects  of  either  to  be  allowed  to 
accept  commissions  from  such  third  nation,  or  to  enlist 
in  its  service ;  and,  should  they  do  so,  they  might  be 
treated  as  pirates.  Ships  of  war  of  the  contracting  par- 
ties were  to  be  mutually  admitted  and  hospitably  re- 
ceived in  the  ports  of  the  other ;  such  ships  of  war,  as 
well  as  privateers,  upon  showing  their  commissions,  to 
be  free,  with  their  prizes,  from  any  claim  of  search,  seiz- 
ure, or  jurisdiction  ;  but  they  were  to  depart  as  speedily 
as  might  be.  Privateers  of  nations  at  war  with  either 
of  the  parties  were  not  to  be  armed  in  the  ports  of  the 
other,  nor  allowed  to  sell  their  prizes  there,  nor  to  pur- 
chase more  provisions  than  might  be  necessary  to  carry 
them  to  the  nearest  port  of  their  own  nation.  No  shel- 
ter was  to  be  given  to  armed  vessels  of  any  third  nation 
which  had  made  prize  of  vessels  belonging  to  either  con- 
tracting party,  and,  if  forced  in  by  stress  of  weather, 
such  vessels  should  be  compelled  to  depart  as  soon  as 
possible ;  but  neither  this  nor  any  other  article  was  to 
interfere  with  the  obligation  of  pre-existing  treaties. 
Neither  nation  was  to  allow  vessels  or  goods  of  the  oth- 


544          HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  er  to  be  captured  in  any  of  its  oays,  ports,  or  rivers,  or 
within  cannon-shot  of  its  coast.      In  case  of  rupture  or 

1794  war,  the  citizens  or  subjects  of  either  nation  resident  in 
the  territories  of  the  other  were  to  be  allowed  to  remain 
and   to  continue  their  trade,  so  long  as  they  behaved 
peaceably.     They  might,  however,  be  ordered  off,  in  case 
of  suspicion,  on  twelve  months'  notice,  or  without  any 
notice,  if  detected  in  violations  of  the  laws.     No  reprisals 
were  to  be  ordered  by  either  party  till  satisfaction  had 
first  been  demanded.      Fugitives  from  justice,  charged 
with  murder  or  forgery,  were  to  be  mutually  given  up. 

1795  While  Congress  was  still  sitting,  information  had  been 
received  of  the  conclusion  of  a  treaty,  but  the  treaty  it- 
self did  not  arrive  till  several  days  after  the  end  of  the 
session.      In  anticipation  of  that  event,  a  circular  had 
been  issued  for  a  special  session  of  the  Senate,  and  that 

June  8.  body  came  together  accordingly.  The  changes  in  the 
Senate  since  the  conclusion  of  the  late  session  were,  on 
the  whole,  favorable  to  the  Federalists.  In  Elijah  Paine 
of  Vermont,  and  Humphrey  Marshall  of  Kentucky,  they 
had  gained  two  additional  members,  the  votes  of  those 
two  states  being  now  divided.  Robert  Morris  of  Penn- 
sylvania had  been  superseded  by  William  Bingham,  an 
eminent  merchant,  and  Ralph  Izard  of  South  Carolina 
by  Jacob  Read,  but  these  new  members,  like  their  pred- 
ecessors, were  Federalists.  Trumbull,  the  former  speak 
er  of  the  House,  took  his  seat  as  a  senator  from  Connec- 
ticut. In  the  substitution  of  Timothy  Bloodworth  of 
North  Carolina  for  Benjamin  Hawkins,  the  Federalists 
might  be  considered  as  losing  a  vote.  Virginia  was  rep- 
resented by  Stevens  T.  Mason  and  Henry  Tazewell,  who 
had  taken  their  seats  during  the  late  session  in  place  of 
Monroe  and  Taylor,  both  of  whom  had  resigned. 

Juno  24        Mter  a  fortnight's  debate  in  secret  session,  the  Senate, 


JAY'S    TREATY— QUESTION    OF   RATIFYING.      545 

by  a   vote  of  twenty  to  ten,  precisely  a  constitutional  CHAPTER 

majority,  advised  the  ratification  of  the  treaty,  that  arti- 

cle  excepted  which  related  to  the  West  India  trade.  1795. 
Apart  from  the  very  questionable  policy  of  purchasing 
so  limited  a  concession  at  so  great  a  sacrifice,  there  was 
a  particular  objection  to  the  terms  of  that  arrangement 
which  made  it  wholly  inadmissible.  Among  the  articles 
the  transportation  of  which  to  Europe  the  Americans 
were  required  to  renounce,  besides  sugar,  molasses,  cof- 
fee, and  cocoa,  was  cotton.  Neither  Jay  nor  Grenville 
seems  to  have  been  aware  that  cotton  had  lately  become 
an  article  of  export  from  the  Southern  States.  This 
subject,  therefore,  it  was  necessary  to  reserve  for  further 
negotiation,  along  with  the  unsettled  question  of  impress- 
ments. The  senators  who  voted  against  this  conditional 
ratification  were  the  four  from  Virginia  and  North  Car- 
olina, Robinson  of  Vermont,  Langdon  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, Burr  of  New  York,  Brown  of  Kentucky,  Butler 
of  South  Carolina,  and  Jackson  of  Georgia. 

Though  well  a\vare  of  the  deficiencies  of  the  treaty, 
the  president,  before  submitting  it  to  the  Senate,  had 
made  up  his  mind  in  favor  of  ratifying.  All  the  mem- 
bers of  his  cabinet,  Randolph  excepted,  who  seemed  some- 
what doubtful,  were  very  decidedly  of  the  same  opinion. 
But  the  recommendation  of  the  Senate,  that  a  clause 
be  added  suspending  the  operation  of  the  West  India 
article,  raised  some  nice  questions  and  led  to  some  delay. 
Would  it  be  necessary  to  lay  that  additional  article  be- 
fore the  Senate  ?  or  could  the  treaty  be  finally  ratified 
before  that  article  was  added  to  it  ?  A  much  more  se- 
rious difficulty  grew  out  of  the  arrival  of  news,  not  offi- 
cial, indeed,  but  sufficiently  authenticated  to  be  entitled 
to  credit,  that  the  British  order  for  the  seizure  of  pro- 
vision-ships, withdrawn  previous  to  the  late  negotiation, 
IV.— MM 


546  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  had,  in  consequence  of  a  new  scarcity  in  France, 
vur 

'      again  renewed.      The  circumstances  under  which  provi- 

1795.  sions  might  be  regarded  as  contraband  had  been  one  of 
the  points  as  to  which  Jay  had  been  unable  tc  come  tc 
any  agreement  with  the  British  negotiators.  According 
to  the  American  view,  provisions  were  contraband  only 
when  on  their  way  to  a  besieged  and  blockaded  city. 
The  British  claimed  a  much  more  extensive,  but  not 
very  definite  right  of  seizure,  whenever  it  might  operate 
to  distress  their  enemies.  Leaving  that  point  unsettled, 
the  treaty  had  merely  provided  that,  when  seized,  they 
should  not  be  confiscated,  but  paid  for.  Randolph  dwelt 
with  emphasis  on  the  new  British  order,  in  the  hope,  ap- 
parently, of  shaking  Washington's  determination  to  rati- 
fy. Should  the  treaty  be  ratified  while  that  order  re- 
mained in  force,  it  might  be  regarded  as  a  concession  on 
the  part  of  America  of  the  right  of  the  British  to  issue  it. 
Randolph  was  in  favor  of  ratifying  only  on  condition  of 
the  repeal  of  the  order.  It  was  suggested  by  Hamilton, 
consulted  on  the  occasion  at  the  president's  request,  to 
ratify,  but  to  withhold  the  exchange  of  the  ratifications 
till  the  order  was  repealed.  No  final  decision  had  been 

.'Ely  15.  come  to  when  the  president  left  for  Mount  Vernon,  Ran- 
dolph being  directed  to  prepare  a  memorial  on  the  subject 
of  the  provision  order,  to  be  forwarded  to  the  president 
for  his  approval,  in  season  to  be  transmitted  by  Ham- 
mond, the  British  minister,  who  was  about  returning 
home.  Instructions  were  also  to  be  prepared  for  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  negotiation  as  to  the  unsettled  topics. 

The  Senate  had  removed  the  seal  of  secrecy  from  theii 
proceedings,  but  had  forbidden  any  publication  of  the 
treaty  itself.  Statements,  however,  as  to  its  contents 
had  begun  to  appear,  accompanied  by  very  malignant 
oomments.  In  order  to  prevent  hasty  conclusions,  found- 


JAY'S    TREATY— QUESTION    OF    RATIFYING.     547 

ed  on  partial  views,  and  wishing  to  hear  the  opinions  of  CHAPTEB 

the  people,  Washington  had  directed  the  whole  treaty  to 

be  published.     But  in  this  he  had  been  anticipated.     On  179/5 
the  same  day  that  this  direction  was  given,  a  full  abstract 
had  appeared  in  the  Aurora,  followed,  a  day  or  two  aft- 
er, by  a  perfect  copy,  furnished  by  Mason  of  the  Senate 
under  his  own  name. 

Ever  since  the  arrival  of  news  that  a  treaty  had  been 
formed,  there  had  not  been  wanting  strong  symptoms  in 
certain  quarters  of  a  disposition  to  condemn  it  before- 
hand and  at  all  events.  The  violent  partisans  of 
France  looked  with  very  jealous  eyes  upon  any  arrange- 
ment whatever  with  Great  Britain.  No  sooner  did  the 
abstract  of  the  tr-eaty  make  its  appearance,  than  a  loud 
outcry  was  raised  against  it,  as  no  better  than  a  pusil- 
lanimous surrender  of  American  rights,  and  a  shame- 
ful breach  of  obligations  to  France.  The  temper  of  the 
populace  of  Boston  had  been  exhibited  a  few  days  before,  June  au 
in  a  night  attack  upon  a  vessel  from  Halifax,  upon  a 
suggestion  by  the  French  consul  that  she  was  a  Brit- 
ish privateer.  This  supposed  privateer,  which  turned 
out,  however,  to  be  an  innocent  commercial  vessel,  was 
plundered  of  her  cargo,  towed  into  the  stream,  and,  with 
her  masts  cut  away,  was  set  on  fire,  and  left  afloat,  to 
the  imminent  danger  of  all  the  shipping  in  the  harbor. 
This,  however,  was  going  rather  further  than  any  respon- 
sible person  was  willing  to  answer  for.  Even  the  Bos- 
ton Chronicle,  the  organ  of  the  Massachusetts  opposition, 
expressed  a  doubt  whether,  under  a  free  government, 
such  riots  could  ever  be  "  fully  justified." 

A  day  or  two  after  the  arrival  of  the  abstract  of  the 
treaty  at  Boston,  some  of  the  active  leaders  of  the  oppo- 
sition procured  a  call  for  a  town  meeting  to  take  the  July  10 
subject  into  consideration.     At  this  meeting  the  treaty 


548  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  was  denounced  as  not  containing  one  single  article  non- 
orable  or  beneficial  to  the  United  States.      A  vote  of  dis- 


1795.  approval  was  passed  unanimously,  and  a  committee  of 
fifteen  was  appointed  to  state  objections  in  an  address  to 
the  president.  This  committee  reported  no  less  than 
twenty  objections,  which  were  agreed  to  without  debate, 
and  the  address  to  the  president  was  immediately  dis- 

July  13.  patched  by  express,  under  cover  of  a  letter  from  the 
town  magistrates.  The  more  moderate  and  rational 
part  of  the  inhabitants  had  made  no  opposition  to  these 
proceedings,  except  some  little  demur  as  to  undertaking 
in  town  meeting  to  exercise  the  functions  of  the  Senate 
Ames,  in  a  private  letter,  very  freely  expressed  his  indig 
nation  and  contempt  at  "the  blindness  and  gullibility 
of  the  rich  men,  who  had  suffered  themselves  to  be  made 
tools  of  on  this  occasion"  by  the  leaders  of  the  opposition 
The  election  for  governor  coming  on  in  New  York 
during  Jay's  absence,  he  had  been  supported  by  the  Fed- 
eralists for  that  office.  Clinton  having  declined  a  re- 
election, Yates,  the  chief  justice  of  the  state,  had  been 
adopted  as  a  candidate  in  his  stead.  But  the  majority 
in  favor  of  Jay  was  decisive ;  and  having,  on  his  return 
home,  resigned  his  post  of  Chief  Justice,  he  had  just 
entered  upon  the  office  of  governor.  This  recent  tri- 
umph of  the  Federalists  served  to  aggravate  the  oppo- 
sition ;  and  no  sooner  had  news  of  the  Boston  town  meet- 
ing  reached  New  York,  than  a  violent  anonymous  hand- 

fuly  ID.  bill  was  circulated,  calling  upon  the  citizens  to  meet, 
two  days  after,  in  front  of  the  City  Hall,  to  join  the  peo- 
ple of  Boston  in  expressing  detestation  of  the  treaty. 
By  way  of  antidote  to  this  inflammatory  appeal,  at  a 
private  meeting  of  merchants,  an  address  to  the  public 
was  agreed  to.  These  merchants  declared  themselves 
unable  to  discover  in  the  treaty  those  '<  hideous  features' 


OPPOSITION   TO   JAY'S   TREATY.  549 

so  much  complained  of;   and  they  recommended  calm  CHAPTER 

deliberation  and  discussion,  and  a  full  attendance  at  the „ 

proposed  meeting,  in  order  that  the  true  sense  of  the  1795. 
city  might  appear. 

At  the  time  appointed,  a  great  meeting  assembled  in  July  18. 
front  of  the  City  Hall.  The  friends  of  the  treaty  ap- 
peared in  strength,  and  succeeded  in  electing  a  chair- 
man. A  motion  was  then  made  to  adjourn  to  some 
place  more  convenient  for  discussion ;  but  this  was  op- 
posed on  the  ground  that,  as  the  president  might  ratify 
the  treaty  at  any  moment,  an  instant  decision  was  neces- 
sary. Such  was  the  argument  of  Brockholst  Living- 
ston, son  of  the  late  Governor  Livingston,  of  New  Jersey, 
and  brother-in-law  of  Jay,  who  now  came  forward  as  a 
leader  of  the  opposition.  The  whole  of  that  influential 
family,  with  Chancellor  Livingston  at  their  head,  out  of 
enthusiasm  for  France,  or  for  some  more  personal  rea- 
sons, had  recently  joined  that  side  in  politics.  Hamilton 
spoke  in  favor  of  adjournment.  Already  the  meeting 
had  become  turbulent,  when  the  confusion  was  increased 
by  the  arrival  of  an  excited  party,  which  had  first  burned 
the  treaty  on  the  Battery,  and  had  then  marched  up 
Broadway,  bearing  the  French  and  American  flags. 
Stones  were  thrown  at  Hamilton,  one  of  which  struck 
him  in  the  forehead,  but  glanced  off  without  much  in- 
jury. The  question  being  taken  on  a  motion  to  leave 
the  decision  on  the  treaty  to  the  president  and  Senate, 
both  sides  claimed  a  majority.  A  motion  was  then  made 
to  appoint  a  committee  of  fifteen,  to  report  two  days  aft- 
er ;  and  some  one  present,  without  any  reference  to  the 
chairman,  read  off  a  list  of  names,  and  calling  for  a  vote, 
declared  them  to  be  carried.  By  this  time,  indeed,  the 
meeting  had  become  so  tumultuous  that  all  the  friends 
f  peace  and  order  thought  it  best  to  withdraw. 


550  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER       At  the  adjourned  meeting  nobody  attended  except  the 
'      enemies  of  the  treaty.     After  attempting,  by  a  new  vote, 
1795.  to  confirm  their  former  irregular  appointment,  the  corn- 
July  21.  mittee  of  fifteen,  of  which   Brock  hoist  Livingston  was 
chairman,   reported  twenty-eight    condemnatory   resolu- 
tions, all  of  which  were  agreed  to  without  opposition. 

These  resolutions,  while  expressing  gr-eat  confidence 
in  the  president's  wisdom,  patriotism,  and  independence, 
were  equally  confident  that  his  own  "  good  sense"  must 
induce  him  to  reject  the  treaty,  "  as  invading  the  Con- 
stitution and  legislative  authority  of  the  country  ;  as 
abandoning  important  and  well-founded  claims  against 
the  British  government ;  as  imposing  unjust  and  im- 
politic restraints  on  commerce  ;  as  injurious  to  agri- 
culture ;  as  conceding,  without  an  equivalent,  import- 
ant advantages  to  Great  Britain  ;  as  hostile  and  un- 
grateful to  France ;  as  committing  our  peace  with  that 
great  republic ;  as  unequal  toward  America  in  every 
respect ;  as  hazarding  her  internal  peace  and  prosperi- 
ty ;  and  as  derogatory  from  her  sovereignty  and  inde- 
pendence." 

By  way  of  offset  to  these  proceedings,  the  New  York 
Jr. \j  22  Chamber  of  Commerce  adopted  counter  resolutions,  ex- 
pressing their  opinion  that  the  treaty  contained  as  many 
features  of  reciprocity  as,  all  things  considered >  could  be 
reasonably  expected  ;  and  that  the  arrangements  for  the 
surrender  of  the  Western  posts,  for  the  adjustment  of 
British  debts,  for  compensation  for  spoliations  and  their 
prevention  in  future,  were  wise  and  beneficial ;  whereas, 
if  the  treaty  were  rejected,  war,  with  all  its  calamities, 
might  reasonably  be  apprehended.  Esteeming  the  rati- 
fication expedient,  they  were  still  content,  however,  tc 
leave  the  decision,  in  full  confidence,  where  the  Consti- 
tution had  placed  it. 


OPPOSITION   TO    JAY'S   TREATY.  5  5  ± 

The  popular  feeling  in  Philadelphia  had  been  already  CIIAPTEP 

foreshadowed  in  an  attempt,  on  the  fourth  of  July,  which 

had  come  near  producing  a  serious  riot,  to  burn  Jay  1795 
and  the  ratifying  senators  in  effigy.  The  public  meet- 
ings in  Boston  arid  New  York  were  soon  followed  up  in  Ju'j  2-1 
that  city  also.  The  treaty  was  condemned  in  like  sum- 
•nary  manner,  and  a  committee  of  fifteen  was  appointed, 
among  whose  members  were  Chief  Justice  M'Kean,  Al- 
exander J.  Dallas,  and  Muhlenburg,  the  late  speaker  of 
the  Federal  House  of  Representatives,  to  convey  the 
sentiments  of  the  meeting  in  an  address  to  the  president 
According  to  Wolcott's  account,  in  a  letter  to  Washing-  July  o»i 
ton,  then  at  Mount  Vernon,  the  adjourned  meeting  con- 
sisted of  some  fifteen  hundred,  not  half  of  whom  took 
any  part  in  the  proceedings,  most  of  those  who  did  so 
being  of  the  ignorant  and  violent  class.  Among  the 
leaders  mounted  upon  a  stage  were  M'Kean,  Dallas, 
Muhlenburg,  Swanwick,  representative  elect  to  Congress 
from  the  eity  of  Philadelphia,  and  several  other  influen- 
tial persons.  The  memorial  was  read  twice,  and  agreed 
to  without  debate.  The  treaty  was  then  thrown  to  the 
populace,  who  placed  it  on  a  pole,  and  proceeded  to  the 
house  of  the  English  minister,  before  which  they  burned 
it,  with  huzzas  and  acclamations,  a  ceremony  repeated 
before  several  other  houses. 

While  these  manifestations  broke  out  at  the  north, 
the  city  of  Charleston  gave  indications  equally  decisive 
of  the  state  of  feeling  there.  John  Rutledge,  chief  jus- 
tice of  the  state,  denounced  the  treaty,  at  a  public  meet- 
ing, as  totally  destitute  of  a  single  article  worthy  of  ap- 
proval. He  even  went  so  far  as  to  reproach  Jay  with 
stupidity,  if  not  corruption,  in  having  signed  it.  He 
was  followed  by  Christopher  Gadsden,  another  Revolu- 
tionary hero,  very  much  in  the  same  strain.  A  ballot 


552 


OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 


CHAPTER  was  then  opened  for  a  committee  of  fifteen,  to  report  at 

VIII 

'  a  subsequent  meeting.  Upon  this  committee,  besides 
1795.  John  Rutledge  and  Gadsden,  were  Edward  Rutledgo, 
Ramsey,  Tucker  and  Burke,  late  representatives  in 
Congress,  and  William  Johnson,  afterward  a  judge  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  Charles  C. 
Pinckney  was  nominated  upon  it,  but  took  no  part  in 
July  22.  its  proceedings.  The  committee  reported,  a  few  days 
after,  with  caustic  criticism  on  most  of  the  articles  of  the 
treaty,  and  recommended  a  memorial  to  the  president 
not  to  ratify  it.  Charles  Pinckney,  always  active  in 
the  opposition,  though  he  had  failed  to  be  elected  on  the 
committee,  took  care  to  signalize  his  zeal  in  a  vehement 
and  abusive  speech,  winding  up  with  a  motion  to  re- 
quest the  president  to  take  steps  to  have  Jay  impeached. 
While  these  more  regular  proceedings  were  going  on, 
the  populace  performed  their  part  by  trailing  the  British 
flag  through  the  streets,  and  burning  it  before  the  con- 
sul's door.  What  made  John  Rutledge's  share  in  these 
proceedings  the  more  embarrassing  was  that,  on  Jay's 
resignation  of  the  post  of  chief  justice,  the  president  had 
tendered  that  place  to  him.  He  had  agreed  to  accept 
it  ;  and  the  official  letter  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  an- 
nouncing his  appointment,  arrived  at  Charleston  two 
days  after  his  violent  speech. 

The  example  thus  set  in  the  principal  towns  of  the 
Union  was  soon  followed  in  every  quarter.  Many  took 
part  in  these  proceedings  of  whom  such  a  course  was 
Aug  2  hardly  to  have  been  expected.  A  meeting,  held  at  Wil- 
mington, at  which  Csesar  Rodney  made  a  violent  speech 
against  the  treaty,  was  followed  up  by  a  report  in  the 
same  spirit,  presented  by  a  committee,  of  which  John 
Dickinson  acted  as  chairman. 

In  consequence  of  these  violent  demonstrations  of  feel- 


OPPOSITION   TO   JAY'S   TREATY.  553 

ing,  Washington  resolved,  though  at  great  private  incon-  CHAPTER 
venience,  to  return  immediately  to  Philadelphia,  in  order  , 

to  have,  in  all  steps  to  be  taken,  the  advice  and  assist-  1.795. 
ance  of  all  his  cabinet.  <•'•  I  view  the  opposition,"  so  he 
wrote  to  Randolph  in  the  letter  announcing  this  inten- 
tion, "  which  the  treaty  is  receiving  from  the  meetings 
in  different  parts  of  the  Union  in  a  very  serious  light ; 
not  because  there  is  more  weight  in  any  of  the  objections 
which  are  made  to  it  than  was  foreseen  at  first,  for  there 
is  none  in  some  of  them,  and  gross  misrepresentation  in 
others ;  nor  as  respects  myself  personally,  for  this  shall 
have  no  influence  on  my  conduct,  plainly  perceiving,  and 
I  am  accordingly  preparing  rny  mind  for  it,  the  obloquy 
which  disappointment  and  malice  are  collecting  'to  heap 
upon  me.  But  I  am  alarmed  at  the  effect  it  may  have 
on,  and  the  advantage  the  French  government  may  be 
disposed  to  make  of,  the  spirit  which  is  at  work  to  cher- 
ish a  belief  in  them  that  the  treaty  is  calculated  to  favor 
Great  Britain  at  their  expense.  Whether  they  believe 
or  disbelieve  these  tales,  the  effect  it  will  have  upon  the 
nation  will  be  nearly  the  same  ;  for,  while  the  animosity 
between  the  two  nations  exists,  it  will  be  their  policy, 
no  matter  at  whose  expense,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  will  be 
their  conduct,  to  prevent  us  from  being  on  good  terms 
with  Great  Britain,  or  her  from  deriving  any  advantage 
from  our  trade  which  they  can  hinder,  however  much  we 
may  ourselves  thereby  be  benefited.  To  what  length 
this  policy  and  interest  may  carry  them  is  problematical ; 
but  when  they  see  the  people  of  this  country  divided, 
and  such  a  violent  opposition  given  to  the  measures  of 
their  own  government,  pretendingly  in  their  favor,  it  may 
be  extremely  embarrassing,  to  say  no  more  of  it. 

"  I  have  never,  since  I  have  been  in  the  administra- 
tion of  the  government,  seen  a  crisis  which,  in  my  judg 


£54  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  rnent,  has  been  so  pregnant  with  interesting  events,  noi 

'      one  from  which  more  is  to  be  apprehended,  whether  viewed 

1795.  from  one  side  or  the  other.  From  New  York  there  is, 
and  I  am  told  will  further  be,  a  counter-current ;  bm 
how  formidable  it  will  appear  I  know  not.  If  the  same 
does  not  take  place  at  Boston  and  other  towns,  it  will 
afford  but  too  strong  evidence  that  the  opposition  is,  in 
a  manner,  universal,  and  would  make  the  ratification  a 
very  serious  business  indeed.  As  it  respects  the  French, 
even  counter-resolutions  would,  for  the  reason  I  have  al- 
ready mentioned,  do  little  more  than  weaken,  in  a  smal.1 
degree,  the  effect  the  other  side  would  have." 
fulysi  In  another  letter,  two  days  after,  expressing  his  in- 
tention not  to  set  out  for  Philadelphia  before  receiving 
answers  to  some  previous  letters,  he  made  the  following 
additional  remarks:  "To  be  wise  and  temperate,  as  well 
as  firm,  the  present  crisis  most  eminently  calls  for.  There 
is  too  much  reason  to  believe,  from  the  pains  that  have 
been  taken  before,  at,  and  since  the  advice  of  the  Senate 
respecting  the  treaty,  that  the  prejudices  against  it  are 
more  extensive  than  is  generally  imagined.  This  I  have 
lately  understood  to  be  the  case  in  this  quarter,  from 
men  who  are  of  no  party,  but  well  disposed  to  the  pres- 
ent administration.  How  should  it  be  otherwise,  when 
no  stone  has  been  left  unturned  that  could  impress  on 
the  minds  of  the  people  the  most  arrant  misrepresentation 
of  facts,  that  their  rights  have  not  only  been  neglected, 
but  absolutely  sold ;  that  there  are  no  reciprocal  advan- 
tages in  the  treaty  ;  that  the  benefits  are  all  on  the  side 
of  Great  Britain  ;  and,  what  seems  to  have  more  weight 
with  them  than  all  the  rest,  and  to  have  been  most 
pressed,  that  the  treaty  is  made  with  the  design  to  op- 
press the  French,  in  open  violation  of  our  treaty  with 
that  nation,  and  contrary,  too,  to  every  principle  of  grat- 


OPPOSITION   TO    JAY'S   TREATY.  555 

itude  and  sound  policy  ?      In  time,  when  passion  shall  CHARTE* 
have  yielded  to  sober  reason,  the  current  may  possibly  ' 

turn ;  but,  in  the  mean  while,  this  government,  in  rela-  1795. 
tion  to  France  and  England,  may  be  compared  to  a  ship 
between  the  rocks  of  Scylla  and  Charybdis.  If  the  treaty 
is  ratified,  the  partisans  of  the  French,  or,  rather,  of  war 
and  confusion,  will  excite  them  to  hostile  measures,  or, 
tit  least,  to  unfriendly  sentiments ;  if  it  is  not,  there  is- 
no  foreseeing  all  the  consequences  which  may  follow,  as 
it  respects  Great  Britain." 

"  It  is  not  to  be  inferred  from  hence  that  I  am  dis- 
posed to  quit  the  ground  I  have  taken,  unless  circum- 
stances more  imperious  than  have  yet  come  to  my  knowl- 
edge should  compel  it ;  for  there  is  but  one  straight 
course,  and  that  is,  to  seek  truth,  and  pursue  it  steadily. 
But  these  things  are  mentioned  to  show  that  a  close  in- 
vestigation of  the  subject  is  more  than  ever  necessary, 
and  that  there  are  strong  evidences  of  the  necessity  of 
the  most  circumspect  conduct  in  carrying  the  determina- 
tion of  government  into  effect,  with  prudence  as  it  re- 
spects our  own  people,  and  with  every  exertion  to  pro- 
duce a  change  for  the  better  from  Great  Britain 

"  The  memorial" — a  rough  draft  of  which  had  been 
forwarded  by  Randolph — "  seems  well  designed  to  answer 
the  end  proposed,  and  by  the  time  it  is  revised  and  new 
dressed,  you  will  probably  have  seen  all  the  objections 
against  the  treaty  which  have  any  real  force  in  them, 
and  which  may  be  fit  subjects  for  representation  in  the 
memorial  or  in  the  instructions,  or  both.  But  how  much 
longer  the  presentation  of  the  memorial  can  be  delayed 
without  exciting  unpleasant  sensations  here,  or  involving 
serious  evils  elsewhere,  you,  who  are  at  the  scene  of  in- 
formation and  action,  can  judge  better  than  I." 

Already,  indeed,  among  the  friends  of  the  treaty,  very 


556  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  unpleasant  sensations  had  begun  to  be  excited  at  the  de« 

' lay  in  its  ratification.      The  other  members  of  the  cabinet 

1795.  complained  of  the  strange  and  mysterious  behavior  of 
Randolph,  who  alone  possessed  Washington's  entire  con- 
fidence on  the  subject.  Randolph,  in  a  pamphlet  which 
he  afterward  published,  endeavored  to  prove  that,  prior 
to  the  great  outcry  against  the  treaty,  he  had  so  far  pre- 
vailed as  to  bring  Washington  to  the  determination  not 
to  ratify  except  conditionally,  on  the  repeal  of  the  provi- 
sion order.  However  that  might  have  been,  Washing- 
ton's confidence  in  Randolph  was  destined  to  come  to  a 
sudden  end,  and  the  treaty  to  be  ratified  without  condi- 
tion or  further  delay. 

Fauchet's  private  dispatch,  No.  10,  quoted  already  in 
giving  an  account  of  the  whisky  insurrection,  had  been 
intercepted  on  its  way  to  France  by  a  British  cruiser, 
and,  through  Lord  Grenville,  had  been  transmitted  to 
Hammond,  the  British  minister  at  Philadelphia.  Ascrib- 
ing the  delay  in  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  to  Ran- 
dolph's influence,  Hammond  communicated  this  dispatch 
to  Wolcott,  as  going  to  show  what  intrigues  the  Secre- 
tary of  State  had  carried  on  with  the  late  French  min- 
ister, whose  successor  had  arrived,  in  the  person  of  M. 
Adet,  about  the  time  of  the  submission  of  the  treaty  to 
the  Senate.  Wolcott  consulted  with  Pickering  and 
Bradford,  and  the  result  was  a  request  to  the  president 
to  return  with  all  speed  to  Philadelphia. 

\ug.  11.  Immediately  upon  his  arrival,  the  intercepted  dispatch 
Aug.  12.  was  communicated  to  him.  The  next  day  a  cabinet 
council  was  held,  at  which  the  question,  What  should  be 
done  with  the  treaty?  was  discussed,  not  without  some 
warmth.  Not  content  with  insisting  upon  the  repeal  of 
the  provision  order  as  a  preliminary  to  ratification,  Ran- 
dolph now  took  the  ground  that  the  treaty  ought  not  to 


RANDOLPH  AND  FAUCHET.          557 

be  ratified  at  all  pending  the  present  war  between  En-  CHAPTEB 

gland  and  France.      The  other  members  of  the  cabinet 

insisted  upon  immediate  ratification,  wTith  a  strong  me~  1795 
morial  against  the  provision  order.  In  favor  of  this 
course  Washington  decided,  and  the  ratification  was 
signed  two  days  after.  The  president  considered  it  a  part  Aug.  14 
of  Randolph's  business  to  complete  the  memorial,  so  long 
in  his  hands,  and  the  instructions  for  further  negotia- 
tions. This  being  done,  and  the  copies  of  the  treaty 
countersigned  by  Randolph,  Washington  presented  to  Aug  18 
him,  in  presence  of  the  other  cabinet  officers,  the  original 
intercepted  dispatch,  with  a  request  to  read  it,  and  to 
make  such  explanations  as  he  might  think  fit.  Having 
read  over  the  whole  document,  Randolph  commenced 
commenting  upon  it,  paragraph  by  paragraph,  though 
the  greater  part  contained  little  or  nothing  in  which  he 
was  involved.  It  was  observed  with  surprise  that  he 
expressed  no  indignation  at  the  style  in  which  Fauchet 
spoke  of  the  "  tariff"  which  regulated  the  consciences 
of  certain  "  pretended  patriots,"  in  which  class  he  was 
evidently  himself  included.  As  to  the  "  overtures"  men- 
tioned as  particularly  described  in  No.  6,  and  in  a  way 
to  imply  that  Randolph  and  his  brother  patriots  had 
asked  for  money,  he  could  not  tell,  he  said,  what  was 
referred  to.  He  recollected,  indeed,  having  been  inform- 
ed that  Hammond  and  other  persons  were  contriving 
measures  in  New  York  against  Governor  Clinton,  the 
French  republic,  and  himself,  and  that  he  had  inquired 
of  Fauchet  whether  he  could  not,  by  his  flour  contract- 
ors, provide  the  means  of  defeating  their  machinations. 
Perhaps  No.  6  alluded  to  that.  He  insisted,  howev- 
er, that  he  had  never  received  nor  asked  for  money 
for  himself  or  others,  and  had  never  made  any  improper 
communications  to  Fauchet  of  the  measures  of  govern- 


HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 
CHAPTER  ment.     He  proposed  to  put  his  further  observations  in 

VI1L 

'  writing ;  and,  as  Le  perceived  how  unsatisfactory  his 
1795.  explanations  were,  he  tendered  his  resignation.,  which  he 
made  the  same  day  by  letter,  requesting  that  the  dis- 
patch might  be  kept  secret  till  he  should  be  able  to  pre- 
pare his  explanations,  for  which  purpose  he  proposed  to 
pay  a  visit  to  Fauchet,  then  at  Newport,  and  about  sail- 
ing for  France.  Randolph  obtained  from  Fauchet  a  re- 
quest to  his  successor  to  furnish  from  the  archives  of 
the  mission  the  extract  from  his  dispatch,  No.  6,  to 
which  reference  had  been  made  in  the  intercepted  dis- 
patch ;  and  this  he  presently  published,  as  already  quoted, 
together  with  a  long  explanatory  letter  from  Fauchet. 
According  to  this  letter,  drawn  up  apparently  without 
having  No.  6  at  hand,  and  which  it  is  impossible  to  rec- 
oncile with  that  document,  the  conversation  occurred 
at  the  embassador's  country  house,  near  Philadelphia. 
With  an  air  of  great  distress,  Randolph  expressed  his 
fears  of  an  approaching  civil  war,  and  his  apprehensions 
that  the  English  were  secretly  fomenting  the  insurrec- 
tion. Fauchet  had  previously  mentioned  his  suspicions 
as  to  a  meeting  between  Hammond  and  others,  held 
about  that  time  in  New  York,  with  objects  supposed  to 
be  hostile  to  Governor  Clinton,  to  the  French  republic, 
and  to  Randolph's  influence  with  the  president.  Ran 
dolph  suggested  that  certain  measures  might  be  adopted 
at  that  meeting  intended  to  embarrass  the  American 
government  by  stimulating  the  insurrection ;  and,  since 
the  French  republic  was  interested  in  this  matter,  could 
not  Fauchet  assist  in  obtaining  some  information  as  to 
what  was  passing  ?  By  means  of  the  contracts  for  sup- 
plying flour  to  France,  the  French  minister  had  numer- 
ous correspondents ;  three  or  four  persons  among  them 
might,  by  talerts,  energy,  and  some  influence,  procure 


RANDOLPH  AMD  FAUCHET.          559 

he  necessary  information,  and  save  America  from  a  civil  CHAPTER 

war  by  proving  that  England  interfered  in  the  troubles 

of  the  West.  "I  do  not  recollect,"  continued  Fauchet,  1795. 
"  that  he  gave  me  at  that  time  any  details  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  this  discovery  would  produce  this  last 
effect ;  but  I  perfectly  recollect  to  have  heard  it  said,  by 
some  person  or  other,  that  the  insurgents  would  be  aban- 
doned by  the  greatest  number  of  those  whom  they  be- 
lieved on  their  side,  and  that  the  militia  would  march 
with  cheerfulness  if  it  were  proved  that  the  English 
were  at  the  bottom  of  these  maneuvers.  I  think,  there- 
fore, that  probably  this  was  the  manner  in  which  he 
conceived  the  thing  would  be  settled.  At  the  moment 
of  his  mounting  his  horse,  he  observed  to  me  that  the 
men  whom  I  might  be  able  to  employ  might  be  debtors 
to  English  merchants  ;  that  in  this  case  they  might  per- 
haps be  exposed,  on  the  slightest  movements  in  this  im- 
portant affair,  to  see  themselves  harassed  by  process,  and 
even  arrested  by  their  creditors ;  and  he  asked  if  the  pay- 
ment of  the  sums  due  to  them,  by  virtue  of  the  existing 
contracts,  would  not  be  sufficiently  early  to  render  them 
independent  of  British  persecutions  ?  This  proposition 
to  obtain  intelligence,  I  confess,  surprised  me.  I  was 
astonished  that  the  government  did  not  procure  for  itself 
information  so  precious ;  and  I  made  the  reflections  con- 
tained in  my  letter  on  this  affair,  because  I  believed  that 
all  the  citizens  in  the  United  States  ought  to  endeavor 
to  furnish  intelligence  so  important,  without  being  stop- 
ped by  the  fear  of  British  persecution;  and  because  I, 
moieover,  thought,  when  I  committed  my  reflections  to 
paper,  that  it  was  proposed  to  obtain  the  foregoing  intel- 
ligence by  assisting  with  loans  those  who  had  contracted 
with  me.  But  now  calling  to  mind  all  the  circum- 
stances to  which  the  questions  of  Mr.  Randolph  direct 


560  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  my  attention.  I  have  an  intimate  conviction  that  1  wtta 
vin. 

'      mistaken  in  the  propositions  which  I  supposed  to  have 

1795    been  made  to  me." 

That  Fauchet  might  have  misapprehended  the  pur- 
port of  Randolph's  conversation  at  the  interview  in  ques- 
tion is  highly  probable  ;  nor  ought  any  serious  regard  to 
be  paid  to  the  extensive  superstructure  of  inferences 
which  the  lively  fancy  of  the  French  minister  had  erect- 
ed upon  it.  Yet  the  new  version  of  that  conversation 
concocted  at  Newport,  and  based  upon  Randolph's  ex- 
planatory  suggestions  upon  his  first  reading  the  inter- 
cepted dispatch,  has  all  the  marks  of  a  pure  romance 
A  civil  war  to  be  prevented  by  penetrating  into  the  se- 
crets of  a  presumed  cabal  in  New  York  between  the 
British  minister  and  others,  and  this  object  to  be  ac- 
complished by  means  of  the  contractors  for  supplying 
flour  to  the  French  government — very  likely  persons  in- 
deed to  be  in  Hammond's  confidence !  And  then  the 
precautions  of  Randolph  to  secure  these  agents  against 
possible  arrest  for  supposed  British  debts,  by  urging  the 
payment  of  the  amounts  due  them  on  their  contracts ! 
It  is  difficult  to  suppose  that  a  man  of  Randolph's  sa- 
gacity made  a  special  visit  to  the  French  minister's 
country  house  to  propose  any  such  ridiculous  scheme, 
and  not  less  difficult  to  imagine  that  Fauchet  could  so 
far  have  misunderstood  a  conversation,  which  strongly 
excited  his  attention,  as  to  transform  these  nameless 
flour  contractors  into  "  four  men"  able,  by  their  talents, 
influence,  and  energy,  to  save  the  country  from  a  civil 
war,  but  needing  a  loan  from  the  French  minister  to 
protect  them  from  arrest  by  their  English  creditors.  So 
little,  indeed,  was  Randolph  satisfied  with  a  story  which 
he  himself  had  put  into  Fauchet's  mouth,  that,  although 
be  argued  very  stoutly,  in  his  published  Vindication,  for 


RANDOLPH  AND  FAUCHET.  ^  (j  j 

the  probability  and  consistency  of  that  statement,  he  de-  CHAPTER 

dined  to  say  that  he  himself  remembered  one  single  par- 

ticular  of  it.  According  to  his  account,  he  had  merely  179o 
suggested  to  Fauchet  not  to  let  slip  so  good  an  opportu- 
nity to  substantiate  the  complaints  he  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  making  of  machinations  carried  on  by  Ham- 
mond in  New  York,  designed  to  operate  on  American 
politics  in  a  manner  unfavorable  to  the  French  republic. 

Taking  into  account  that  Randolph  was  excessively 
smbarrassed  in  his  pecuniary  circumstances,  and  that 
he  left  office  a  defaulter,  the  conjecture  does  not  appear 
improbable  that,  to  obtain  some  relief  for  himself,  he 
might  have  attempted  an  experiment  on  the  political  cre- 
dulity of  the  French  minister.  At  all  events,  his  con- 
duct in  the  matter  was  by  no  means  that  of  a  man  con- 
scious of  innocence.  Instead  of  indignation  against 
Fauchet,  his  whole  anger  was  directed  against  Wash- 
ington ;  and  he  attempted  to  withdraw  attention  from  the 
true  issue,  and  to  shield  himself  behind  the  popular  ex- 
citement against  the  British,  by  undertaking  to  show,  in 
his  published  Vindication,  that  the  intercepted  dispatch 
had  been  communicated  to  Washington  as  part  of  a 
scheme  concocted  between  Hammond  and  the  cabinet 
officers  to  insure  the  ratification  of  the  treaty,  to  drive 
Randolph  from  office,  and  "  to  destroy  the  Republicans 
in  the  United  States." 

The  ratification  of  the  treaty  by  no  means  quieted 
the  public  excitement.  The  idea  was  started  that,  al- 
though the  president  might  ratify,  it  still  rested  with 
the  House  of  Representatives  to  refuse,  if  they  chose,  the 
pecuniary  means  to  carry  the  treaty  into  effect.  The 
elections  in  all  the  states  were  not  yet  completed,  yet  it 
was  confidently  alleged  that  a  majority  hostile  to  the 
treaty  had  been  already  chosen. 
IV.— N  N 


562  HISTORY    OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  But  in  proportion  to  the  zeal  with  which  the  treaty 
'  had  been  attacked  was  the  rally  made  in  its  favor.  The 
1795.  Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce,  a  few  days  before  the 
president's  decision,  had  passed  a  resolution,  with  only 
one  dissenting  voice,  in  favor  of  ratification.  This  was 
followed  up  by  a  memorial  from  the  merchants  and  trad- 
ers of  Philadelphia,  taking  the  same  ground,  and  signed 
by  a  long  list  of  names.  Of  the  numerous  public  meet- 
ings which  continued  to  be  held  in  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, many  came  out  in  support  of  the  treaty,  and  of  the 
president's  constitutional  power  in  the  matter.  Some  of 
the  more  violent  of  the  Boston  Democrats,  as  a  counter- 
demonstration,  paraded  the  streets  with  an  effigy  of  Jay, 
which  they  persisted  in  burning.  They  then  attacked 
the  house  of  a  Federal  editor,  but  were  fired  on  and  re 
pulsed.  Disturbances  were  kept  up  for  several  nights ; 
but,  by  alarming  all  friends  of  order,  they  served  to 
strengthen  the  opposite  party. 

The  question  had  already  been  carried  into  the  news- 
papers, where  it  was  discussed  with  great  warmth,  and 
in  several  cases  with  great  ability.  Not  to  mention  num- 
berless inferior  writers,  Brockholst  Livingston  assailed 
the  treaty  as  Decius,  to  whom  Hamilton,  ever  ready  and 
able,  responded  as  Camillus.  So  much  was  Jefferson 
alarmed  at  the  force  of  Hamilton's  reasoning,  that  he 
21.  pressed  Madison,  "  for  God's  sake,"  to  take  up  his  pen, 
there  being  nobody  but  him  able  to  meet  that  Federal 
champion,  whom  he  described  as  "really  a  Colossus,"  ua 
host  within  himself,"  and  whose  reasoning  he  had  found 
by  experience  that  "  honest,  sound-hearted  men  were  un- 
able to  parry." 

Notwithstanding  the  exclusion  of  American  vessels 
from  the  British  West  Indies,  and  the  various  annoyances 
to  which  American  trade  was  subjected,  that  trade  was 


FOREIGN   RELATIONS.  553 

increasing  at  a  rapid  rate.      The  exports  had  risen  in  CHAPTEB 

five  years  from  nineteen  millions  annually  to  forty-eight 

millions.  A  large  part  of  this  increase  was  in  foreign  1795 
merchandise,  brought  to  the  United  States  and  again  ex- 
ported ;  but  the  value  and  amount  of  the  domestic  exports 
had  also  been  greatly  enhanced.  Such  a  trade  was  not 
to  be  sacrificed  to  a  war  with  Great  Britain,  except  for 
the  most  urgent  reasons ;  and,  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts 
of  the  opposition  to  arouse  their  passions,  the  great  body 
of  the  merchants,  and  of  the  more  judicious  and  reflecting 
portion  of  the  people,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
president  had  acted  wisely  in  ratifying  the  treaty.  Pru- 
dential considerations  like  these  had,  however,  little 
weight  with  the  more  ignorant,,  thoughtless,  passionate, 
and  violent,  the  bitter  haters  of  England  and  partisans 
of  France  ;  and,  unfortunately,  the  conduct  of  too  many 
of  the  British  officials  had  been,  and  still  continued  to 
be,  but  little  calculated  to  allay  prevailing  antipathies. 
Hammond,  the  late  British  minister — for  he  too,  as  well 
as  Fauchet,  had  gone  home — was  described  by  Wolcott 
as  a  weak,  vain,  and  imprudent  person,  very  much  in 
the  company  and  under  the  control  of  sour  and  preju- 
diced Tories,  associations  into  which  his  connections  by 
marriage  naturally  led  him.  The  British  naval  officers 
were  far  from  using  that  caution  and  delicacy  by  which 
alone  the  Americans  could  have  been  reconciled,  if,  in- 
deed, any  thing  could  have  reconciled  them,  to  the  im- 
pressment of  British  seamen  from  American  vessels. 
Indeed,  the  opinion  very  generally  prevailed  that  most  of 
these  officers  were  quite  careless  whether  the  men  im- 
pressed were  British  or  not.  Nor  were  the  English,  any 
more  than  the  French  cruisers,  always  observant  cf 
American  territorial  rights.  Considerable  feeling  had 
lately  been  excited  by  an  attempt  to  seize  Fauchet,  the 


564  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  returning  French  minister,  within  the  American  waters, 

VIII. 

..  while  on  his  passage  through  the  Sound  in  an  American 

1795.  packet;  an  attempt  made  by  the  boats  of  a  British  frig- 
ate, which  lay  off  the  harbor  of  Newport,  watching  the 
French  frigate  in  which  that  minister  was  to  embark. 
Stormy  weather  drove  the  packet  into  New  London, 
whence  Fauchet,  on  some  hint  of  what  was  intended, 
proceeded  to  Newport  by  land  ;  a  lucky  escape  for  him. 
as  the  packet  was  subsequently  stopped  and  searched  j 
in  consequence  of  which  outrage,  the  British  frigate  was 
ordered  out  of  the  waters  of  the  United  States.  The 
British  consul  at  Newport,  who  was  believed  to  have 
been  privy  to  the  scheme,  and  who  had  written  a  some- 
what disrespectful  letter  in  relation  to  it,  was  also  deprived 
of  his  exequatur.  Co-operating  with  this  antipathy  to 
England  was  a  new  enthusiasm  in  favor  of  the  French, 
roused  by  their  recent  successes  resulting  in  the  conquest 
and  revolution  of  Holland,  the  organization  of  the  Ba- 
tavian  republic  as  a  dependent  ally  of  France,  and  the 
withdrawal,  first  of  Prussia  and  then  of  Spain,  from  the 
alliance  against  the  French  republic.  Notwithstanding 
the  fearful  atrocities  of  the  late  reign  of  terror,  the  strong 
American  feeling  in  favor  of  the  French  had  undergone 
but  little  diminution  ;  and  the  danger  of  giving  offense 
to  so  powerful  an  ally,  the  shame  of  deserting  so  mag- 
nanimous a  friend,  were  pressed  with  energy  as  strong 
objections  to  the  British  treaty* 

While  this  question  of  foreign  affairs  still  engrossed 
all  thoughts,  the  troublesome  and  expensive  contest  with 
the  Northwestern  Indians  was  brought  at  last  to  a  satis- 
factory conclusion.  For  the  purpose  of  forming  a  treaty, 
near  eleven  hundred  warriors  of  the  Wyandots,  Dela- 
wares,  Shawanese,  Ottawas,  Chippewas,  Potawatomies, 
Miamis,  We&s,  Kickapoos,  Piankeshaws,  Kaskaskias, 


PEACE   WITH    TH=,    NORTHWESTERN    INDIANS.  5(55 

and  Eel  River  Indians,  had   met  Wayne  in  council  at  CHAFTEH 

Fort  Grenville.      f  he  knowledge  that  the  Western  posts 

were  about  to  be  given  up  by  the  British,  concurred,  1795. 
no  doubt,  with  Wayne's  victory  in  bringing  about  this 
peaceful  disposition.  By  the  terms  of  the  treaty  the  Aug.  3 
Indian  boundary  was  to  commence  on  the  Ohio,  opposite 
the  mouth  of  the  Kentucky  River ;  thence  to  extend 
north  a  little  east  to  Fort  Recovery,  on  the  southeastern- 
most  head  waters  of  the  Wabash  ;  thence  eastwardly  to 
the  Muskingum,  and  up  the  Tuscarora  branch  of  that 
river  to  the  Cayuoga  portage,  and  by  the  Cayuoga  to 
Lake  Erie.  All  east  of  this  line,  including  the  eastern 
and  southern  part  of  the  State  of  Ohio,  a  tract  of  some 
twenty-five  thousand  square  miles,  was  ceded  to  the 
United  States.  The  Indians  also  ceded  sixteen  detached 
portions  of  territory  in  the  region  west  of  the  line  above 
described,  the  present  or  former  sites  of  forts  or  trading 
houses,  several  of  them  still  in  possession  of  the  British, 
but  about  to  be  surrendered  under  Jay's  treaty.  Among 
these  cessions  were  the  tract  opposite  Louisville,  granted 
by  Virginia  to  General  George  Rogers  Clarke  and  his 
soldiers  for  their  Revolutionary  services  in  the  Illinois 
country  ;  the  post  of  Vincennes  and  the  land  adjacent ; 
the  other  ancient  French  settlements  in  that  region  ;  Fort 
Massac,  on  the  Ohio,  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Cum- 
berland, Fort  Defiance,  Fort  Wayne,  the  fort  at  the  foot 
of  the  Maumee  Rapids,  Detroit,  Mackinaw,  and  tracts  at 
Sandusky,  Chicago,  and  at  the  mouth  and  head  of  the 
Illinois  River.  Most  of-  these  tracts  were  two  miles 
square,  but  several  were  of  larger  extent.  In  consider- 
ation of  these  cessions,  the  Indians  received  goods  to  the 
value  of  $20,000  in  presents,  and  they  were  promised 
besides  an  allowance  annually  of  the  value  of  $9500,  to 
be  distributed  among  the  contracting  tribes  in  certain 
specified  proportions. 


566  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER       At  the  exchange  of  prisoners  which  took  placo  on  this 

occasion,  many  affecting  incidents  occurred.      The  war 

1795.  as  against  Kentucky  had  lasted  for  almost  twenty  years, 
during  which  period  a  large  number  of  white  people  had 
been  carried  into  captivity.  Wives  and  husbands,  par- 
ents and  children,  who  had  been  separated  for  years, 
were  now  restored  to  each  other.  Many  of  the  younger 
captives  had  quite  forgotten  their  native  language,  and 
some  of  them  absolutely  refused  to  leave  the  savage  con- 
nections,  into  whose  families  they  had  been  taken  by 
adoption. 

On  the  Southern  frontier  the  state  of  Indian  relations 
was  by  no  means  so  favorable.  The  greatest  exertions 
were  made  by  the  agents  of  the  government  for  the  pres- 
ervation of  peace  ;  but  these  efforts  were  perpetually 
counteracted  by  the  reckless  violence  of  some  among  the 
white  settlers,  especially  in  Georgia,  by  whom  new  and 
unprovoked  bloody  outrages  were  committed  on  the  In- 
dians, by  which  that  frontier  was  kept  in  a  constant 
state  of  inquietude. 

Before  the  meeting  of  Congress,  though  the  result  was 
not  known  till  after  the  session  commenced,  two  other 
important  treaties  were  concluded,  besides  a  recognition 
of  the  former  treaty  with  Morocco,  obtained  from  the 
new  sovereign.  After  a  visit  to  the  United  States,  with 
special  reference  to  the  Algerine  negotiation,  Humphreys 
had  returned  again  to  Lisbon,  commissioned  to  buy  a 
peace.  From  Lisbon  he  had  proceeded  to  Paris,  on  the 
suggestion  of  Monroe,  to  solicit  the  mediation  of  the 
French  republic ;  but  he  left  authority  with  Donaldson, 
who  had  accompanied  him  from  America  as  consul  for 
Tunis  and  Tripoli,  to  close  a  treaty  at  once,  should  a 
favorable  opportunity  occur.  Under  this  authority,  Don- 
Sept.  5.  aldson  signed  a  treaty,  during  Humphreys's  absence  at 


TREATY  WITH  ALGIERS.  567 

Paris,  by  which,  in  consideration  of  the  release  of  the  CHAPTER 

captives  and  of  peace  for  the  future,  it  was  agreed  to 

pay  to  the  Dey  of  Algiers  the  round  sum  of  $763,000,  1795. 
besides  an  annual  tribute  in  stores  of  the  nominal  value 
of  $24,000.  But  the  rates  at  which  these  stores  were 
estimated  in  the  treaty  fell  so  far  below  their  real  value, 
that  this  annual  tribute  amounted,  in  fact,  to  about 
$48,000.  Besides  this,  by  the  custom  of  Algiers,  an 
additional  biennial  present  was  required  of  nine  or  ten 
thousand  dollars,  with  $20,000  more  on  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  consul.  Of  the  temporary  loan  of  a  mill- 
ion of  dollars,  authorized  for  the  Algerino  negotiation, 
$200,000  had  been  obtained  of  the  Bank  of  New  York. 
To  borrow  the  remainder  had  not  been  so  easy.  The 
great  extension  given  by  the  war  to  the  carrying  trade, 
and  other  speculations  on  foot,  had  raised  the  rate  of  in- 
terest. The  United  States  Bank,  already  largely  a  cred- 
itor of  the  United  States,  was  unwilling  to  advance  any 
thing  more  in  cash.  It  was  proposed,  however,  to  lend 
the  remaining  $800,000  in  six  per  cent,  stock  at  par, 
held  by  the  bank  as  a  part  of  its  capital.  This  offer 
was  accepted,  and  the  stock  remitted  to  the  Barings,  the 
London  agents  of  the  American  government,  to  be  sold. 
But,  meanwhile,  the  price  of  American  stocks  had  begun 
to  fall,  the  price  of  all  stocks  being  depreciated  by  the 
large  English  demands  for  money,  and  the  heavy  premi- 
ums paid  for  the  new  loans  which  it  became  necessary 
to  raise  to  carry  on  the  war  with  France.  The  sale  was 
delayed  in  hopes  of  a  rise  ;  but  the  stock  continued  to 
go  still  lower,  and  when  sold  a  considerable  loss  was  ex- 
perienced ;  to  which  was  added  another  loss  on  the  re- 
mittance to  Algiers,  owing  to  the  unfavorable  state  of 
the  exchanges.  Nor  was  this  the  end  of  the  matter. 
The  dey  grew  so  impatient  at  not  receiving  his  money, 


^68  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  that  Barlow,  who  had  been  appointed,  on  Monroe's  rec« 
ommendation,  consul  at  Algiers,  found  it  necessary  to 
1795.  pacify  him  by  the  promise  of  a  frigate,  which  involved 
an  expense  of  another  hundred  thousand  dollars,  so  that, 
in  the  end,  the  Algerine  peace  was  pretty  dearly  pur- 
chased. 

Nor  was  this  the  only  occasion  on  which  the  disturbed 
state  of  Europe  interfered  with  the  financial  operations 
of  the  United  States.  Thus  far  the  installments  of  the 
foreign  debt  had  been  provided  for  as  they  fell  due  by 
new  loans  in  Holland  ;  but  that  resource  was  now  at  an 
end.  To  meet  an  installment  of  one  of  the  old  Dutch 
loans  falling  due  this  year,  another  sum  of  $660,000 
had  been  borrowed  of  the  United  States  Bank,  in  six  per 
cent,  stock,  and  remitted  to  Amsterdam  for  sale.  But, 
owing  to  the  confusion  growing  out  of  the  French  inva- 
sion of  Holland  and  the  erection  of  the  Batavian  repub- 
lic, it  had  been  impossible  to  effect  the  sale,  and  the  in- 
stallment, in  consequence,  had  failed  to  be  paid.  But  as 
the  reason  was  known,  and  the  interest  continued  to  be 
met,  the  failure  had  no  injurious  effect  on  the  credit  of 
the  country. 

These  difficulties  had  been  foreseen  by  Hamilton,  and 
it  had  been  part  of  his  scheme  for  the  redemption  of  the 
public  debt  to  convert  the  whole  of  the  outstanding  for- 
eign loans,  upon  which  interest  was  payable  abroad,  into 
a  new  domestic  loan,  the  interest  payable  in  Philadelphia. 
Such  a  provision  had  been  inserted  into  the  act  of  the 
last  session,  providing  for  the  redemption  of  the  public 
debt,  the  inducement  held  out  to  the  creditor  being  the 
addition  of  one  half  of  one  per  cent,  to  the  annual  inter- 
est. Hamilton  had  proposed,  as  an  additional  induce- 
ment, to  make  the  new  stock  irredeemable  before  1818, 
at)  to  which  period,  according  to  his  calculation,  the  re- 


TREATY   WITH    SPAIN.  569 

demption  of  the  present  domestic  loans  would  exhaust  CHAPTER 

all  the  disposable  means  of  the  government.     Such,  how- 

ever,  had  been  the  clamor  about  irredeemable  debts,  that  1795. 
this  part  of  Hamilton's  suggestion  was  not  adopted,  the 
new  stock  being  made  redeemable  at  the  pleasure  of  the 
government.  The  inducement  held  out  by  a  stock  like 
this  was  not  thought  sufficient  by  the  Dutch  stockhold- 
ers, and  only  a  very  small  amount  was  subscribed  to  the 
new  loan.  The  French  government  availed  itself,  how- 
ever, of  this  opportunity  to  realize  at  once  the  amount 
due  to  France,  that  amount  being  subscribed  to  the  new 
loan,  the  certificates  of  which  were  immediately  disposed 
of  in  payments  of  purchases  made  or  debts  contracted 
in  America,  the  French  government,  by  this  operation, 
ceasing  to  be  any  longer  a  creditor  of  the  United  States. 

Thomas  Pinckney,  sent  from  London  on  a  special  mis-  1794. 
sion  to  the  court  of  Spain,  settled  at  last  the  long  pend-  ?2qi' 
ing  Spanish  questions.  The  Florida  boundary,  in  ac-  Qct  20 
cordance  with  the  American  claim,  and  in  the  terms  of 
the  treaty  of  1783  with  Great  Britain,  was  to  be,  between 
the  Mississippi  and  the  Appalachicola,  the  thirty-first 
degree  of  north  latitude,  and  east  of  the  Appalachicola, 
a  line  from  the  junction  of  the  Flint  to  the  head  of  the 
St.  Mary's,  and  thence  by  that  river  to  the  sea.  The 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi  was  to  be  free  to  both  par- 
ties throughout  its  entire  extent.  The  Americans  were 
to  enjoy  a  right  of  deposit  at  New  Orleans  for  three 
years,  at  the  end  of  which  period  either  that  privilege 
was  to  be  continued,  or  an  equivalent  establishment  was 
to  be  assigned  them  at  some  other  convenient  point  on 
the  bank  of  the  Lower  Mississippi.  Neither  party  was 
to  make  alliances  with  Indian  tribes  living  within  the 
territories  of  the  other,  nor  was  either  party  to  allow  its 
Indians  to  carry  hostilities  into  fhe  territories  of  the  other. 


570  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  Provision  was  also  made  for  the  speedy  survey  of  the 

vm.  J  J 
boundary  line. 

1795.  The  articles  on  the  subject  of  commerce  and  naviga- 
tion were  principally  borrowed  from  the  French  and  En- 
glish treaties.  Those  relating  to  neutral  rights  conformed 
to  the  French  model,  by  the  express  exception  of  provis- 
ions and  naval  stores  from  the  list  of  contraband,  and  by 
adopting  the  rule  that  free  ships  should  make  free  goods. 
A  board  of  commissioners  was  provided  for,  as  in  the  En- 
glish treaty,  to  liquidate  losses  on  the  part  of  the  Ameri- 
cans, in  consequence  of  illegal  captures  by  Spanish  cruis- 
ers, such  losses  to  be  paid  by  the  Spanish  crown. 

Shortly  after  the  resignation  of  Randolph,  Bradford, 
the  attorney  general,  had  suddenly  died.  Thus  there 
were  two  cabinet  appointments  to  fill.  The  post  of  At- 
torney General,  after  having  been  refused  by  John  Mar- 
shall and  Colonel  Innes,  was  given  to  Charles  Lee, 
brother  of  Henry  Lee,  the  late  governor  of  Virginia  (in 
which  office  he  had  been  succeeded  by  Robert  Brooke), 
and  of  Richard  Bland  Lee,  of  the  federal  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, and  a  son-in-law  of  Richard  Henry  Lee, 
lately  deceased.  Though  originally  anti-Federal,  that 
distinguished  Revolutionary  leader  had  become,  before 
his  death,  a  steady  supporter  of  the  administration  ;  and 
the  whole  family,  very  influential  in  the  northern  coun- 
ties of  Virginia,  had  also  come  out  as  champions  of  the 
treaty,  and  decided  Federalists.  To  fill  up  Randolph's 
place  was  still  more  difficult.  Though  Washington  had 
abandoned  the  policy  of  a  balanced  cabinet,  in  which  all 
parties  should  be  represented,  he  still  wished  to  find  a 
secretary  favorable,  indeed,  to  the  policy  of  the  adminis- 
tration, but  as  little  obnoxious  as  might  be  to  tbo  oppo- 
sition. He  offered  the  place  first  to  Judge  Patterson, 
then  to  the  venerable  Thomas  Johnson  of  Maryland,  and 


NEW    APPOINTMENTS.  573 

then  to  Charles  C.  Pinckney,  all  of  whom  declined — John-  CHAPTER 

son  on  account  of  his  age  and  infirmities,  and  Pinckney 

for  reasons  connected  with  the  state  of  his  private  affairs.  1795 
It  was  then  offered,  on  Henry  Lee's  suggestion,  to  Pat- 
rick Henry,  whose  original  opinions  on  the  subject  of 
the  Federal  Constitution  were  understood  to  have  been  a 
good  deal  modified  by  the  experience  of  its  successful  op- 
eration, and  who  had  taken  no  part  in  the  late  violent 
opposition  to  the  measures  of  the  government  which  had 
emanated  from  Virginia.      Henry  declined  the  offer,  but 
with  expressions  favorable  to  the  government,  of  which 
he  afterward  became  a  firm  supporter.      Finally,  the  of- 
fice was  given  to  Pickering,  who  had  discharged  the  du-  Nov.  i* 
ties  of  it  during  the  interval.      Pickering's  former  post 
as  Secretary  of  War,  after  having  been  declined  by  Colo- 
nel Carrington  of  Virginia  and  Colonel  Howard  of  Mary-  ^795 
land,  was  given  to  James  M'Henry,  also  of  Maryland,  Jan.  20 
a  gentleman  of  patrimonial  fortune,  bred  to  the  profes- 
sion of  medicine,  yet  not  wholly  without  military  expe- 
rience, having  served  during  the  Revolutionary  war  as 
an  aid-de-camp  to  La  Fayette. 

A  vacancy  on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  occasioned  by  the  resignation  of  Judge 
Blair,  was  presently  filled  by  Chase  of  Maryland.  Nat- 
urally of  a  very  ardent  and  energetic  temperament,  of 
the  same  class  of  men  with  John  Adams  and  M'Kean, 
Chase  had  been,  like  them,  from  the  first  commencement 
of  the  Revolutionary  struggle,  a  very  active  political 
leader  in  his  native  state.  He  had  been  opposed  to  the 
Federal  Constitution,  among  other  reasons,  because  it 
did  not  recognize  the  doctrine  of  instructions  ;  but,  like 
others  who  had  taken  the  same  ground,  he  was  now  on 
the  side  of  the  administration.  Few  surpassed  him  in 
powers  of  reasoning  or  knowledge  of  the  law,  and  of  his 


£72  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED  STATES, 

CHAPTER  energy  in  its  administration  he  had  lately  given  an  in. 
'  stance,  an  account  of  which  will  serve  to  let  us  a  little. 
1794,  into  the  feelings  of  the  times.  A  riot  had  occurred  at 
Baltimore,  in  which  two  persons  had  been  tarred  and 
leathered,  and  carted  through  the  streets  at  noonday,  one 
charged  with  having  insulted  the  majesty  of  the  people 
by  reversing  the  American  flag,  and  the  other  with  hav- 
ing served  on  board  a  British  privateer.  The  whole  af- 
fair, according  to  the  account  of  "  a  Democrat,"  in  the 
Baltimore  Daily  Advertiser,  "  was  conducted  with  great 
order  and  decency,  and  to  the  great  pleasure  and  enter 
tainment  of  all  the  citizens  (except  a  few  proud  aris- 
tocrats), who  cordially  joined  in  approving,  by  huzza- 
ing and  other  tokens  of  applause."  Among  the  "  proud 
aristocrats"  who  refused  to  applaud  these  patriotic  pro- 
ceedings was  Chase,  who  held,  at  that  time,  the  two  of- 
fices of  chief  justice  of  the  General  Court  and  sole  judge 
of  the  Criminal  Court  for  the  county  and  city  of  Balti- 
more. He  caused  two  persons  of  respectability,  who 
had  been  active  in  the  riot,  to  be  arrested  and  brought 
before  him.  The  court-room  was  soon  filled  with  par- 
ticipators in  the  late  riot,  and  a  mob,  with  a  drum  and 
colors,  assembled  outside.  The  judge  required  the  pris- 
oners to  give  security  for  their  appearance  at  the  next 
court ;  but,  confident  in  the  number  and  zeal  of  their 
supporters,  they  refused  to  do  so.  The  sheriff  being  or- 
dered to  take  them  to  jail,  he  pointed  at  the  mob,  and 
intimated  the  danger  of  a  rescue.  "  Summon  the  posse 
comitatus,"  said  the  judge  ;  to  which  the  sheriff  replied 
that  no  one  would  obey  his  call.  "  Summon  me,  then," 
answered  Chase ;  "I  will  be  the  posse  comitatus,  and 
I  will  take  the  prisoners  to  jail."  Seeing  how  matters 
stood,  he  finally  gave  the  prisoners  till  next  day  to  con- 
sider of  the  subject.  When  some  one  suggested  that 


NEW   APPOINTMENTS.  £  7  ^ 

the  next  day  was  Sunday,  "No  day  more  fit,"  he  answer-  CHAFTEU 

ed,  uon  which  to  vindicate  the  law  !"     An  express  being _ 

sent  off  to  the  governor  and  council  calling  for  aid,  the  1794. 
prisoners  finally  yielded,  and  gave  the  bail  required. 
When  the  matter  came  before  the  grand  jury  some  three  Aug  J 
or  four  months  afterward,  they  refused,  though  the  evi- 
dence was  complete,  to  find  a  bill ;  whereupon  the  judge 
reprimanded  the  sheriff  for  returning  so  bad  a  jury. 
Upon  this  the  jury  took  fire  ;  and,  though  they  had  re- 
fused to  indict  the  rioters,  they  brought  in  a  present- 
ment against  the  judge  for  abuse  of  power  and  insult  to 
them  in  presuming  to  censure  the  sheriff;  also  for  hold- 
ing, as  they  alleged,  two  incompatible  offices,  in  being 
at  the  same  time  judge  of  two  courts ;  and  they  in- 
cluded, also,  in  the  presentment,  the  governor  and  coun- 
cil, for  having  given  him  those  two  appointments.  Chase 
quietly  informed  the  jury,  in  reply,  that  they  had  quite 
overstepped  their  jurisdiction,  which  did  not  extend  to 
cases  of  misbehavior  on  the  part  of  judges  or  the  execu- 
tive. In  undertaking  to  present  the  governor  and  coun- 
cil, who  had  done  no  act  within  their  county,  or  in  any 
way  subject  to  their  investigation,  they  had  usurped  a 
power  not  intrusted  to  them.  It  was  the  duty  of  the 
sheriff  to  return  a  panel  of  the  best  and  most  capable 
men  of  the  county,  and  his  failure  to  do  so,  his  return- 
ing a  bad  jury,  that  is,  men  without  sufficient  knowledge 
or  experience  for  the  station,  was  subject,  not  to  cen- 
sure only,  but  to  fine.  He  took  no  exception  to  their 
presentation  of  himself  for  holding  two  incompatible  of- 
fices, if  they  really  believed  it  to  be  an  offense  ;  though 
that  presentment,  it  could  not  but  be  observed,  seemed 
connected  with,  he  would  not  believe  that  it  flowed  from, 
a  supposed  insult  to  themselves.  "  You  will  continue, 
gentlemen,"  he  concluded,  "  to  do  your  duty,  and  I  shall 


574  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  persevere  in  mine,  and  rest  assured  that  no  mistaken 

VIII. 

'     opinion  of  yours  or  resentment  against  me  will  prevent 
1795.  my  having  due  respect  for  you — as  a  jury." 

From  public  meetings  and  the  newspapers,  the  discus* 
sion  of  the  British  treaty  had  been  transferred  into  the 
arena  of  the   state  Legislatures.      It  was  attacked  by 
Nov.  4    Shelby,  the  governor  of  Kentucky,  in  his  speech  to  the 
Legislature,  as  containing  unconstitutional  stipulation*. 
The  House,  in  their  reply,  seemed  to  agree  with  him,  but 
the  Senate  evaded  any  decided  committal.      The  House 
Nov  20.  of  Delegates  of  Virginia,  after  electing  James  Wood  af 
governor,  adopted,  one  hundred  to  fifty,  in  spite  of  the  ef* 
forts  of  Marshall  and  Charles  Lee,  both  of  whom  had  seats 
in  that  body,  a  resolution  approving  the  conduct  of  their 
senators  in  voting  against  the  treaty.     A  counter-resolu- 
tion, declaring  their  undiminished  confidence  in  the  presi- 
dent, was  lost,  fifty-nine  to  seventy-nine.     But  this  im- 
plied censure  was  partially  qualified  by  another  vote, 
seventy-eight  to  sixty-two,  disclaiming  any  imputation 
on  the  president's  motives.     Another  series  of  resolutions 
was  also  adopted,  proposing  to  amend  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  by  admitting  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives to  a  share  in  the  treaty-making  power  ;  by  reducing 
the  senatorial  term  to  three  years  ;   by  depriving  the  Sen- 
ate  of  the  power  to  try  impeachments ;  and  by  disquali- 
fying judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
from  holding  any  other  office.     Yet  this  same  Legislature 
so  far  abandoned  one  of  the  favorite  topics  of  denuncia- 
tion as  to  adopt  a  resolution  in  favor  of  the  establishment 
within  the  state  of  a  branch  of  the  national  bank. 

The  Maryland  Legislature,  stimulated  thereto  in  no 
small  degree  by  the  eloquence  of  William  Pinkney,  then 
just  rising  into  notice,  unanimously  passed  a  resolution 
expressing  their  "  deep  concern  at  a  series  of  efibits,  oy 


STATE  ACTION  ON  JAY'S  TREATY.       575 

indirect  insinuation  or  open  invective,  to  detach  from  the  CHAPTER 

nrst  magistrate  of  the  Union  the  well-earned  confidence 

of  his  fellow-citizens,"  and  declaring  "  their  unabated  re-  1795. 
liance  on  his  integrity,  judgment,  and  patriotism."  A 
declaration  very  similar  was  made  by  the  Senate  of  Penn- 
sylvania in  their  answer  to  the  governor's  speech.  In 
answer  to  the  speech  of  John  Taylor  Gilman,  governor 
of  New  Hampshire  for  two  years  past,  the  Legislature  of 
that  state  expressed  "  their  abhorrence  of  those  disturb-  Dec.  & 
ers  of  the  peace  who  had  endeavored  to  render  abortive 
measures  so  well  calculated  to  advance  the  happiness  of 
the  country."  The  North  Carolina  Legislature  rejected  Dec.  8. 
by  a  decided  majority  a  series  of  resolutions  after  the 
Virginia  model,  reprobating  the  treaty,  and  thanking 
their  senators  for  having  opposed  it.  Resolutions  having 
been  introduced  into  the  South  Carolina  Legislature  de- 
claring the  treaty  "  highly  injurious  to  the  general  inter- 
ests of  the  United  States,"  the  friends  of  the  treaty,  find- 
ing themselves  quite  in  the  minority,  refused  to  vote  at 
all,  on  the  ground  that  the  Legislature  had  no  business 
to  interfere  with  a  matter  intrusted  to  the  president  and 
Senate  ;  and  in  consequence  of  this  refusal,  the  resolu- 
tions passed  by  a  unanimous  vote.  But  the  House  did 
not  venture  to  send  up  their  resolutions  to  the  Senate. 
A  resolution  declaring  the  treaty  unconstitutional,  very 
warmly  urged  by  Charles  Pinckney,  was  opposed  and  de- 
feated principally  by  the  efforts  of  John  Rutledge,  Jun., 
a  son  of  the  new  chief  justice. 

In  Delaware,  the  opponents  of  the  treaty,  being  in  the  1796 
minority,  resorted  to  the  same  tactics  employed  by  its  Jan* 14 
friends  in  Virginia.      They  endeavored  to  substitute  for 
a  declaration  that  "  the  president  and  Senate  had  mer- 
ited the  approbation  of  their  fellow-citizens  by  a  faithful 
discharge  of  their  duty,"  a  resolution  that  the  matter 


676  HISTORY    OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  did  not  properly  fall  under  the  cognizance  of  the  Assert 

VIII. 

bly.     But  this  was  voted  down,  and  the  resolution  of 

1796.  approval  passed.  In  his  address  to  the  General  Court 
.an.  15.  of  Massachusetts,  Governor  Adams  spoke  of  the  treaty 
as  "  pregnant  with  evil."  He  suggested  a  conflict  of 
authority,  as  the  Constitution  stood,  between  the  treaty- 
making  power  of  the  president  and  Senate  and  the  leg- 
islative authority  of  the  House,  and  he  seemed  to  think 
an  amendment  on  that  point  worthy  of  consideration. 
He  also  transmitted  to  the  Court  the  resolutions  lately 
passed  in  Virginia  on  the  subject  of  amendments ;  but 
neither  those  nor  his  own  suggestions  met  with  any  fa- 
vorable response.  The  Massachusetts  Senate,  declaring 
their  concurrence  in  the  belief  avowed  by  the  governor 
that  the  administration  of  the  general  government  was 
in  honest  hands,  expressed  a  unanimous  opinion  that  it 
would  be  "an  interference  with  the  power  intrusted  to 
that  government  for  the  state  Legislatures  to  decide  on 
the  British  treaty  ;"  while  the  House,  by  a  large  major- 
ity, suggested  "  a  respectful  submission  on  the  part  of 
the  people  to  the  constituted  authorities"  "  as  the  surest 
means  of  enjoying  and  perpetuating  the  invaluable  bless- 
ings of  our  free  and  representative  government."  The 
fleb  General  Court  of  Rhode  Island  expressed  the  opinion 
that  the  president  and  Senate,  in  their  action  on  the 
treaty,  had  been  solely  actuated  by  regard  to  the  peace 
and  prosperity  of  their  country  ;  and  in  that  state,  as  well 
as  in  New  York  and  Massachusetts,  the  proposed  Virginia 
amendments  were  rejected  or  laid  on  the  table. 

Before  the  president  had  succeeded  in  supplying  the 

vacancies  in  his  cabinet,  and  pending  these  demonstra- 

1795.  tions  of  opinion  in  the  states,  the  fourth  Congress  had 

Dec.  7.   already  met.      Among   those   who  had   heretofore  been 

members,  there  appeared  in  the  House,  Ames;  Goodhue. 


MEMBERS    OF   THE    FOURTH    CONGRESS.         577 

Sedgwick.  Thatcher,  Dearborn,  and  W.  Lyman,  of  Mas-  CHAPTEB 

sachusetts  ;  Tracy  and  Hillhouse,  of  Connecticut ;  Day- , 

ton,  of  New  Jersey  ;  Hartley,  Kittera,  F.  A.  Muhlenburg,  1795, 
Findley,and  Gregg,  of  Pennsylvania;  Murray  and  Smith, 
of  Maryland ;  Madison,  Giles,  Nicholas,  Page,  and  Parker, 
of  Virginia ;  Macon,  of  North  Carolina;  Smith,  of  South 
Carolina,  and  Baldwin,  of  Georgia.  Among  the  new 
members  were  Joseph  B.  Varnum,  of  Massachusetts,  wh"> 
had  defeated  Dexter  after  a  violent  and  protracted  strug- 
gle; Roger  Griswold,  of  Connecticut;  Edward  Livingston, 
a  younger  brother  of  Chancellor  Livingston,  from  the  city 
of  New  York  ;  Samuel  Sitgreaves,  Albert  Gallatin,  and 
John  Swanwick,  of  Pennsylvania,  the  latter  chosen  in 
Philadelphia  over  the  head  of  Fitzsimmons ;  Gabriel 
Duvall,  of  Maryland,  afterward  a  judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States ;  and  Wade  Hampton  and 
Robert  G.  Harper,  of  South  Carolina.  Harper,  by  pro- 
fession a  lawyer,  born  in  Maryland,  of  humble  parentage, 
had  been  chosen  from  one  of  the  upper  districts  of  South 
Carolina  as  an  opponent  of  the  policy  of  the  administra- 
tion. His  political  zeal  had,  indeed,  been  so  great,  that, 
a  year  or  two  before,  he  had  solicited  admission  into  the 
Democratic  club  of  Charleston.  He  saw  reason,  how- 
ever, to  change  his  opinions,  and  presently  became  a  con- 
spicuous champion  of  the  Federal  party.  Dayton  was 
chosen  speaker  over  Muhlenburg  by  a  vote  of  forty-six 
to  thirty-one.  This,  however,  was  no  test  of  the  strength 
of  parties.  All  the  Federalists  voted  for  Dayton,  as  the 
only  person  at  all  connected  with  their  party  who  had 
the  slightest  chance  of  success;  while  Dayton's  person- 
al influence,  his  former  zeal  for  the  sequestration  of  Brit- 
ish debts,  and  the  belief  that  he  would  hardly  sustain  a 
treaty,  one  of  the  articles  of  which  seemed  leveled  at  his 
motion  on  that  subject,  secured  him  the  votes  of  many 
IV,— O  o 


,578  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  opponents  of  the  administration.    The  old  clerk,  Bexley, 

'      was  re-elected  by  a  majority  as  large  as  Dayton's,  though 

1795.  ho  was  opposed  by  the  Federalists  as  being  devoted  to 

the  opposition,  and  was  even  strongly  suspected  as  the 

author  of  certain  recent  articles  in  the  Aurora  signed 

*v  a  Calm  Observer,"  in  which  Washington  was  charged 

with  having  drawn  from  the  treasury  money  on  account 

of  his  salary  to  which  he  was  not  entitled. 

By  the  rules  as  revised  and  adopted,  to  the  two  stand- 
ing committees  on  Elections  and  Claims,  two  others  were 
added,  one  on  Commerce  and  Manufactures,  the  other  on 
"Unfinished  Business.  A  standing  committee  of  Ways 
and  Means,  consisting,  as  in  the  last  Congress,  of  one 
member  from  each  state,  was  presently  appointed,  on 
motion  of  Gallatin. 

uec.  3.  The  president,  in  his  opening  speech,  in  announcing 
the  conclusion  of  peace  with  the  Northwestern  Indians, 
the  treaty  with  Algiers,  and  the  prospect  of  a  treaty  with 
Spain — for  the  news  of  its  actual  conclusion  had  not  yet 
arrived — congratulated  Congress  on  a  state  of  public 
affairs,  and  a  prosperity  of  agriculture,  commerce,  and 
manufactures  beyond  former  example.  He  also  officially 
announced  his  ratification  of  the  British  treaty,  except 
the  West  India  article,  and  promised,  as  soon  as  the  result 
on  the  part  of  the  British  government  should  be  known, 
to  place  the  whole  subject  before  Congress.  He  suggest- 
ed a  remodeling  of  the  military  establishment ;  pressed 
anew  an  efficient  organization  of  the  militia ;  and  urged, 
with  emphasis,  the  adoption  of  measures  to  protect  the 
Indians  against  the  violence  of  the  lawless  part  of  the 
frontier  inhabitants,  as  the  only  means  of  securing  peace 
with  the  Indians,  and  thus  preventing  a  constant  series 
of  retaliations  shocking  to  humanity,  and  an  enormous 
drain  on  the  treasury  of  the  Union.  "  To  enforce  upon 


PRESIDENT'S    SPEECH.  579 

the  Indians  the  observance  of  justice,  it  is  indispensable  CHAPTLU 

that  there  shall  be  competent  means  of  rendering  justice 

to  them.  If  these  means  can  be  devised  by  the  wisdom  179-5. 
of  Congress — and  especially  if  there  can  be  added  an  ade- 
quate provision  for  supplying  the  necessities  of  the  In- 
dians on  reasonable  terms  (a  measure,  the  mention  of 
which  I  the  more  readily  repeat,  as  in  all  the  conferences 
with  them  they  urge  it  with  solicitude) — I  should  not 
hesitate  to  entertain  a  strong  hope  of  rendering  our  tran- 
quillity permanent.  I  add,  with  pleasure,  that  the  proba- 
bility even  of  their  civilization  is  not  diminished  by  the 
experiments  which  have  been  thus  far  made  under  the 
auspices  of  government.  The  accomplishment  of  this 
work,  if  practicable,  will  reflect  undecaying  luster  on  our 
national  character,  and  administer  the  most  grateful  con- 
solations that  virtuous  minds  can  know."  The  speech 
concluded  with  the  following  significant  hint :  "  Tem- 
perate discussion  of  the  important  subjects  which  may 
arise  in  the  course  of  the  session,  and  mutual  forbear- 
ance where  there  is  a  difference  of  opinion,  are  too  obvi- 
ous and  necessary  for  the  peace,  happiness,  and  welfare 
of  our  country  to  need  any  recommendation  of  mine." 

The  answer  of  the  Senate  spoke  of  the  president's  for- 
eign policy  as  "  an  enlightened,  firm,  and  persevering 
endeavor  to  preserve  peace,  freedom,  and  prosperity." 
This  the  opposition  wished  to  strike  out,  objecting  to  the 
introduction  of  any  thing  into  the  address  tending  to  re- 
yive  the  divisions  of  the  late  extra  session.  But  the 
majority  would  not  consent,  and  the  address  was  carried 
fourteen  to  eight. 

In  the  House,  Parker  proposed  to  forego  the  established 
usage  of  a  formal  written  reply  to  the  president's  speech, 
carried  to  him  by  the  members  in  a  body,  and  to  substi- 
tute instead  a  committee,  with  a  verbal  assurance  that 


580  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED   fcTATES. 

CHAPTER,  the  several  subjects  suggested  should  be  taken  Lito  con. 

VIIL 

sideration.  This  motion,  however,  was  feebly  support 
1795*  ed,  and  Madison,  Sedgwick,  and  Sitgreaves,  the  two  last 
decided  Federalists,  were  appointed  a  committee  to  draft 
the  usual  reply.  The  draft,  as  reported,  ascribed  a  full 
share  of  the  "  unequaled  spectacle  of  national  happiness" 
which  the  country  exhibited  to  the  benefits  derived  from 
the  president's  administration,  resulting  as  well  from 
"  the  undiminished  confidence  of  his  fellow-citizens  as 
from  his  zealous  and  successful  labors  in  their  service." 
When  this  report  was  presented,  Parker  moved  to  strike 
out  the  word  "unequaled?"  as  well  as  all  reference  to 
"  undiminished  confidence"  in  the  president,  and  to  his 
"  zealous  and  successful  labors."  This  motion,  which 
did  but  follow  the  lead  of  the  Virginia  Assembly,  then 
in  session,  was  sustained  by  the  House,  and  the  draft  be- 
I)ec>i6<'hig  recommitted,  was  modified  to  read  as  follows:  "In 
contemplating  that  spectacle  of  national  happiness  which 
our  country  exhibits,  and  of  which  you,  sir,  have  been 
pleased  to  make  an  interesting  summary,  permit  us  to 
acknowledge  and  declare  the  very  great  share  which 
your  zealous  and  faithful  services  have  contributed  to  it, 
and  to  express  the  affectionate  attachment  which  we  feel 
for  your  character."  But,  while  thus  chiming  in  with 
the  popular  feeling  of  esteem  and  attachment  for  the  pres- 
ident, the  substitution  of  this  new  draft  for  that  origin 
ally  reported  implied,  at  least  so  the  Federalists  thought, 
a  tacit  censure  of  his  recent  course,  amounting  to  an  in- 
direct vote  of  diminished  confidence. 

The  address  thus  disposed  of,  the  early  part  of  the  ses- 
sion passed  off  very  quietly,  both  sides  seeming  to  reserve 
themselves  till  the  British  treaty  should  come  up.  This 
calm,  however,  was  somewhat  disturbed  by  a  curious 
question  of  breach  of  privilege,  growing  out  of  an  alleged 


LAND   SPECULA1IONS.  gg] 

attempt  \o  bribe  certain  members  of  the  House — one  of  CHAPTER 
the  fruits  of  that  spirit  of  land  speculation  which,  sino.fi 
the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution  and  the  revival  1795 
of  public  prosperity,  had  been  pushed  to  a  great  extent. 
The  vast  public  domain,  which,  in  consequence  of  the  Rev- 
olution, had  passed  into  the  hands  of  particular  states,  was 
already  mostly  exhausted.  Massachusetts  still  retained 
her  property  in  the  larger  part  of  the  wild  lands  of  Maine, 
but  even  there  extensive  speculations  had  taken  place, 
while  her  far  more  valuable  tracts  in  Western  New  York, 
obtained  by  compromise  with  that  state,  had  all  passed 
into  the  hands  of  individuals.  Of  the  seven  millions  of 
acres  which  New  York  had  possessed,  exclusive  of  the 
lands  yielded  to  Massachusetts,  five  millions  and  a  half 
had  been  disposed  of  at  a  single  sale  in  1791,  for  about 
a  million  of  dollars.  More  than  three  and  a  half  mill- 
ion acres  had  been  purchased  by  a  single  individual,  at 
the  rate  of  eight  cents  an  acre,  payable  in  five  annual 
installments,  without  interest ;  but  this  purchase,  in- 
cluding the  elevated  and  sterile  tract  of  the  Adirondack 
Mountains,  between  Lake  Champlain  and  the  St.  Law- 
rence, which  remains  unsettled  to  this  day,  proved  by 
no  means  a  profitable  speculation.  These,  with  other 
subsequent  sales,  had  almost  exhausted  the  public  do- 
main of  New  York.  Of  the  large  tracts  which  the  con- 
fiscation of  the  proprietary  estates  had  thrown  into  the 
hands  of  Pennsylvania,  almost  the  whole  had  been  bought 
up  by  speculators.  As  to  Virginia  and  North  Carolina, 
their  unlocated  land  warrants  already  issued  were  more 
than  sufficient  to  cover  the  lands  within  their  limits,  to- 
gether with  all  the  ceded  portions  of  Kentucky  and  the 
Territory  south  of  the  Ohio.  In  this  emergency,  the  spec- 
ulators had  turned  their  attention  to  the  lands  claimed 
by  Georgia  west  of  the  Chattahoochee  and  between  that 


#82  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  river  and  the  Mississippi.      These  lands,  it  is  frue,  were 

VIII. 

occupied  at  present  by  the  Creeks,  Choctaws,  and  Chick- 
1705  asaws,  numerous  and  powerful  Indian  tribes.  The  title 
of  Georgia  to  these  lands  was  also  very  questionable,  es- 
pecially to  that  part  of  them  below  the  thirty-third  de- 
gree of  north  latitude,  all  the  lands  below  that  parallel 
being  claimed  by  the  United  States,  as  formerly  a  part 
of  the  British  province  of  West  Florida.  But  this  had 
not  prevented  the  formation  of  four  companies,  including 
some  very  eminent  citizens  in  various  parts  of  the  Union, 
to  which  the  Legislature  of  Georgia,  during  the  preced 
ing  winter,  had  sold  the  pre-emption  right  to  a  vast  por- 
tion of  the  tract  above  described.  These  speculators  had 
proceeded  to  sell  out,  at  a  great  advance,  to  individuals 
and  companies  in  the  Middle  States  and  New  England. 
The  profits  thus  obtained  stimulated  others  to  like  enter- 
prises ;  while  the  influence  alleged  to  have  been  exer- 
cised on  the  Legislature  of  Georgia  perhaps  suggested 
the  operating  upon  Congress  by  similar  means. 

Two  persons,  Randall  and  Whitney,  one  from  Mary- 
land, the  other  from  Vermont,  in  conjunction  with  some 
Indian  traders  and  others  in  Detroit,  where  Randall  had 
lately  been,  had  formed  a  scheme  for  obtaining  from 
Congress,  for  the  sum  of  $500,000,  the  right  to  pur- 
chase of  the  Indians  some  twenty  millions  of  acres  in  the 
peninsula  of  Michigan,  to  be  divided  into  forty  shares. 
Inducements  had  been  held  out  to  certain  members  of 
Congress  to  give  their  support  to  this  scheme  by  the 
offer  of  shares  in  the  speculation,  to  be  ultimately  pur- 
chased, if  they  did  not  choose  to  hold  them,  by  the  com- 
pany. Overtures  of  this  sort  had  been  made  to  Giles, 
Smith  of  South  Carolina,  Murray,  and  others.  Giles 
communicated  the  matter  to  the  speaker  and  to  certain 
confidential  friends,  but  said  nothing  publicly  hoping  to 


ALLEGED    ATTEMPT   AT   BRIBERY.  533 

detect  the  culprits  by  their  votes.      Randall  boasted  that  CHAPTER 

VIII. 

he  had  already  secured  thirty  members,  and  Giles  did  not 

doubt  that  all,  or  most  of  them,  were  Federalists,  whose  1795. 
venality  would  thus  be  detected  -and  exposed.  This 
scheme  was  defeated,  however,  by  Murray,  who  made 
a  statement  on  the  subject  to  the  House,  being  unwill- 
ing, as  he  said,  that  any  of  the  members  should  be  igno- 
rantly  and  innocently  seduced  into  voting  for  the  grant 
on  its  merits.  For  public  as  well  as  private  reasons  were 
urged  in  its  favor;  the  proposed  company,  through  the  in- 
fluence of  its  members  with  the  Indians,  would  do  much, 
it  was  said,  toward  preserving  peace  on  the  frontier. 

Randall  was  ordered  to  be  arrested,  and,  after  an  ex-  1796. 
animation  of  Whitney,  was  put  upon  trial  before  the  Jan-  4 
House  on  a  charge  of  attempting  to  corrupt  its  members 
and  of  having  said  that  he  had  already  secured  thirty 
votes  for  his  project.  He  was  allowed  counsel,  and  the 
privilege  of  examining,  under  oath,  members  and  others; 
and  the  like  privilege  was  exercised  against  him.  The 
defense  set  up  was  that  he  had  been  misunderstood,  and 
that  his  conduct,  though  foolish  and  imprudent,  had  not 
been  corrupt.  After  the  hearing,  a  resolution  was  adopt- 
ed, declaring  Randall  guilty  of  a  high  contempt  in  at- 
tempting to  influence  members  as  to  their  legislative 
functions.  There  were  seventeen  votes  against  this  res- 
olution, those  of  Madison,  Page,  and  Nicholas  among  the 
number,  who  maintained  that  the  members  had  no  priv- 
ilege against  such  attempts  except  in  their  own  integri- 
ty. Randall  was  sentenced  to  be  reprimanded  by  the 
speaker,  and  to  remain  in  custody  until  further  order  ; 
but,  a  few  days  after  the  reprimand,  he  was  dismissed 
on  payment  of  fees. 

Somewhat  later  in  the  session,  another  question  of 
privilege  grew  out  of  the  Georgia  land  speculation  men- 


584  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  tinned  above.  There  had  been  transmitted  to  Baldwin 
.'.  a  memorial  to  Congress  to  do  nothing  recognizing  the 
1796.  validity  of  that  sale  until  an  investigation  could  be  had. 
Gunn.  one  of  the  Georgia  senators,  himself  deeply  in- 
terested in  the  business,  claimed  the  right  to  see  this 
memorial  before  its  presentation,  and  also  to  be  informed 
of  the  names  of  the  signers.  Baldwin  having  refused  to 
allow  this,  Gunn,  who  was  a  person  of  very  fiery  tem- 
perament, sent  him  a  challenge  through  Frelinghuysen 
of  New  Jersey,  a  brother  senator  also  concerned  in  the 
Georgia  purchase.  As  this  was  not  a  personal,  but  a 
political  matter — not  a  question  of  etiquette  and  chival- 
ry, so  Baldwin  expressed  it,  but  one  relating  to  his  rights 
and  duties  as  a  representative,  he  laid  the  challenge  be- 
fore the  House.  The  committee  to  whom  the  subject 
March  8.  was  referred  reported  that  both  Gunn  and  Frelinghuysen 
had  been  guilty  of  a  breach  of  privilege  ;  but,  as  both 
the  senators  had  addressed  letters  of  apology  to  the  House, 
disclaiming  any  intentional  disrespect,  no  further  pro- 
ceedings were  deemed  necessary. 

While  waiting  for  the  British  treaty,  the  House  leis- 
urely employed  itself  on  several  bills,  of  which  a  further 
account  will  be  presently  given.  The  Senate  refused  to 
confirm  the  nomination  of  Rutledge  as  chief  justice — a 
refusal  by  no  means  disagreeable  to  the  president — and, 
after  presiding  at  one  term  of  the  court,  he  had  the  mor- 
tification to  be  obliged  to  retire.  Gushing  of  Massachu- 
setts, one  of  the  original  judges,  was  then  nominated  and 
approved ;  but,  as  he  declined  to  accept  the  promotion, 
the  office  was  ultimately  given  to  Ellsworth  of  Con- 
necticut, to  whose  seat  in  the  Senate  Hillhouse  present- 
ly succeeded. 

The  treaty  with  Great  Britain  having  at  length  re« 
turned  with  the  suspending  article  appended,  the  presi* 


AUTHORITY    OF    THE    HOUSE    AS    TO    ri  tvE  ATIE  S.  59  5 

dent  proclaimed  it  as  the  law  of  the  land,  and,  agreeably  CHAPTER 

to  his  promise,  sent  a  copy  of  it  to  the  House.     Both « 

parties  were  roused  by  its  appearance  for  a  determined  1796. 
struggle.     The  first  movement  came  from  the  opposition,  March  2. 
in  the  shape  of  a  motion  by  Livingston  to  call  upon  the 
president  for  his  instructions  to  Jay,  and  the  correspond- 
ence and  other  documents  relating  to  the  treaty. 

When  this  motion  came  up  for  debate,  Tracy  inquired  March?, 
as  to  its  object,  since  on  that  its  propriety  would  depend. 
The  call  would  be  proper  if  an  impeachment  either  of 
Jay  or  the  president  were  intended,  but  not  so  if  the 
constitutionality  of  the  treaty  was  to  be  questioned,  be- 
cause that  must  depend  on  the  treaty  itself.  Or  did  the 
House  propose  to  inquire  whether  a  better  treaty  might 
not  have  been  made  ? 

Without  disavowing  either  of  the  objects  above  sug- 
gested, Livingston  stated,  as  his  principal  reason,  a  firm 
conviction  that  the  House  was  vested  with  a  discretion- 
ary power  whether  or  not  to  carry  the  treaty  into  execu- 
tion. This,  accordingly,  became  the  point  on  which  the 
passage  of  the  resolution  was  made  to  turn.  Gallatin 
took  the  leading  part  in  favor  of  it,  sustained  by  Madi- 
son, Baldwin,  Livingston,  Giles,  and  others.  The  oppo- 
site view  was  maintained  by  Smith  of  South  Carolina, 
Harper,  Murray,  Hillhouse,  and  others  of  less  note. 

Those  who  maintained  the  right  of  the  House  to  ex- 
ecute a  treaty  or  not  at  its  pleasure  relied  upon  that 
clause  of  the  Constitution  vesting  the  legislative  power 
in  Congress.  Treaties  being  the  law  of  the  land,  and 
the  legislative  power  being  in  Congress,  the  House,  as 
one  of  the  branches  of  Congress,  must  have  the  right  of 
granting  or  refusing  that  consent,  without  which  no  law 
could  be  enacted.  The  other  side  relied  upon  the  clause 
of  t'ie  Constitution  expressly  vesting  in  the  president, 


586  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  the  power  to 

VIIT 

'  make  treaties.  From  these  extreme  points,  both  sides 
1796.  advanced  a  little  to  meet  each  other.  The  House,  it 
was  admitted,  had  no  right  to  interfere,  except  so  far  as 
a  treaty  might  involve  some  one  of  the  matters  specially 
enumerated  in  the  Constitution  as  subject  to  the  control 
of  Congress  ;  while  the  other  side  conceded  that  if  a 
treaty  were  made,  ruinous  and  destructive  in  its  nature, 
the  House  might  rightfully  defeat  its  operation.  This 
right,  however,  stood  on  the  same  ground  with  the  right 
of  insurrection,  being,  in  fact,  extra-constitutional  and 
revolutionary.  In  support  of  the  right  of  the  House, 
~Gallatin  appealed  to  the  practice  of  Groat  Britain,  al- 
leging that  Parliament  claimed  the  right  of  passing  upon 
all  treaties.  Giles  was  rather  doubtful  about  appealing  to 
British  example  for  any  thing ;  but  as  the  House  of  Com- 
mons was  the  special  representative  of  the  British  people, 
such  an  appeal  might,  in  that  view,  perhaps,  be  tolerated. 
Smith  and  Harper  denied  that  any  example  could  be  pro- 
duced of  a  treaty  defeated  by  a  refusal  on  the  part  of  the 
House  of  Commons  to  pass  the  laws  or  to  make  the  ap- 
propriations necessary  to  carry  it  into  effect ;  and,  in  the 
second  place,  they  denied  any  analogy  between  the  two 
cases.  The  British  Parliament  claimed  to  be  omnipo- 
tent; the  powers  of  Congress  were  specially  limited.  The 
British  House  of  Commons  was  the  sole  representative 
of  the  people,  whereas  the  president  and  Senate  were  as 
much  the  people's  representatives  as  the  members  of  the 
House,  who  would  be  guilty  of  arrogance  and  usurpation 
in  undertaking  to  claim  a  power  which  the  people  had 
seen  fit,  through  the  Constitution,  to  intrust  to  other 
agents.  Though  treaties  had  the  force  of  laws,  they 
differed  in  one  essential  point  from  those  laws,  the  powei 
to  make  which  was  exclusively  vested  in  Congress.  A 


AUTHORITY  OF  THE  HOUSE  AS  TO  TREATIES.  5  &  y 

law  was  an  act  of  authority,  to  the  validity  of  which  the  CHAPTER 

consent  of  Congress  alone  was  sufficient,  but  which  could 

have  no  operation  exterior  to  the  jurisdiction  of  Congress.  1796. 
A  treaty  was  a  compact,  a  bargain,  by  means  of  which, 
in  consideration  of  certain  rights,  to  have  the  force  of 
law,  yielded  within  our  jurisdiction,  certain  advantages 
were  obtained  wholly  exterior  to  it.  If  money  were 
needed  to  carry  out  this  compact,  Congress  must,  indeed, 
be  applied  to,  because  no  money  could  be  drawn  from 
the  treasury  except  by  act  of  Congress.  But,  in  such 
a  case,  the  only  discretion  possessed  by  Congress  was 
as  to  the  method  of  raising  and  paying  the  money. 
Congress  had  no  discretion  to  revise  the  terms  of  the 
bargain,  or  to  exercise  any  authority  as  to  its  fulfillment. 

After  some  thirty  speeches  on  either  side,  in  a  de- 
bate of  three  weeks,  which  continued  to  grow  warmer 
and  wrarmer  the  longer  it  lasted,  the  discussion  was  some- 
what abruptly  terminated,  the  resolution  being  carried  March  2t 
by  the  decisive  vote  of  sixty-two  to  thirty-seven. 

Thus  called  upon,  the  president  consulted  his  cabinet 
as  to  the  right  of  the  House  to  demand  the  papers,  that 
right,  under  the  circumstances  of  the  call  (the  resolution 
not  containing  any  hint  of  an  impeachment),  being  con- 
ceived to  depend  on  the  right  of  the  House  to  participate 
in  the  treaty-making  power.  He  also  requested  their 
opinion  as  to  the  expediency  of  furnishing  the  papers, 
even  though  the  belief  might  be  entertained  that  the 
House  had  no  right  to  call  for  them. 

As  to  the  question  of  right  on  the  part  of  the  House, 
the  cabinet  were  unanimous  against  it.  They  were  also 
unanimous  on  the  other  question.  No  pretense  could  be 
set  up  that  the  papers  contained  any  thing  which  the 
government  were  afraid  to  show,  for  they  had  already 
been  communicated  to  Livingston,  as  chairman  of  a  com- 


HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

«BAPTER  mittee  on  impressments,  and  to  other  members  of  the 
,  '  npposition.  The  call  must  be  looked  upon  as  a  mere 
1796.  unfounded  claim  of  power  put  forward  by  the  House. 
Due  regard  for  the  authority  and  rights  of  the  presiden- 
tial office  seemed  to  require  that  such  a  pretension  should 
be  met  at  once  by  an  explicit  refusal.  In  these  opinions 

March  30.  the  president  concurred.  He  stated  in  his  message,  de- 
clining to  accede  to  the  call  of  the  House,  that,  having 
himself  been  a  member  of  the  Federal  Convention,  and 
knowing  the  principles  upon  which  the  Constitution  was 
formed,  he  had  never  doubted  that  the  power  of  making 
treaties  was  exclusively  vested  in  the  president,  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  two  thirds  of  the  Senate.  It  even 
appeared,  from  the  journal  of  the  Convention,  deposited 
with  the  Department  of  State,  that  a  motion  had  been 
made  and  explicitly  rejected,  that  no  treaty  should  be 
binding  which  had  not  been  ratified  by  law.  There  was 
every  reason  to  believe  that  the  state  ratifying  conven- 
tions had  understood  the  Constitution  as  he  did.  On 
that  construction  he  had  always  acted  ;  foreign  nations 
had  negotiated  in  that  expectation ;  and,  hitherto,  the 
House  of  Representatives  had  not  only  acquiesced,  but 
had  never  questioned  it.  "  As,  therefore,  it  is  perfectly 
clear,  to  my  understanding,"  so  the  message  concluded, 
"  that  the  assent  of  the  House  of  Representatives  is  not 
necessary  to  the  validity  of  a  treaty,  as  the  treaty  with 
Great  Britain  exhibits  in  itself  all  the  objects  requiring 
legislative  provision,  and  on  these  the  papers  called  for 
can  throw  no  light ;  and  as  it  is  essential  to  the  due  ad- 
ministration of  the  government  that  the  boundaries  fixed 
by  the  Constitution  between  the  different  departments 
should  be  preserved — a  just  regard  to  the  Constitution 
and  to  the  duty  of  my  office,  under  all  the  circumstances 
of  this  case,  forbid  a  compliance  with  your  request." 


AUTHORITY  OF  THE  HOUSE  AS  TO  TREATIES. 

This  message,  after  a  week's  delay,  was  taken  up  in  CHAPTES 
Committee  of  the  Whole  along  with  two  resolutions  of-  _ __^_ 
fered  by  Blount  of  North  Carolina,  no  doubt  carefully  1796. 
prepared  in  conclave,  and  setting  forth  the  counter-doc-  ApTl1  6 
trine  of  the  majesty  of  the  House.  The  first  and  most 
important  of  the  resolutions,  after  disclaiming  any  pre- 
tensions on  the  part  of  the  House  to  "  any  agency  in 
making  treaties,"  yet  undertook  to  assert  "  that,  when  a 
treaty  stipulated  regulations  on  any  of  the  subjects  sub- 
mitted by  the  Constitution  to  the  power  of  Congress,  it 
must  depend  for  its  execution,  as  to  such  stipulations, 
on  a  law  to  be  passed  by  Congress,"  as  to  the  expediency 
or  inexpediency  of  which  law  the  House  had  a  right  to 
deliberate,  and  to  pass  it  or  not,  as  they  might  see  fit. 
The  second  resolution  asserted  that,  in  applications  to 
the  executive  for  information,  if  within  the  range  of  its 
powers,  the  House  was  not  bound  to  state  for  what  pur- 
pose the  information  was  wanted — a  rather  uncandid  and 
somewhat  pitiful  attempt  to  raise  a  new  issue,  consid- 
ering that  Gallatin,  the  leader  of  the  opposition,  had  ex- 
pressly admitted,  early  in  the  former  debate,  that,  had 
the  information  been  wanted  as  ground  for  an  impeach- 
ment, it  would  and  should  have  been  so  stated  in  the 
call. 

The  task  of  supporting  these  resolutions  had  been  as- 
signed to  Madison,  who  protested  against  any  appeal,  on 
questions  of  interpretation,  to  the  proceedings  of  the 
Federal  Convention.  "  The  sense  of  that  body  could 
never  be  regarded  as  the  oracular  guide  in  expounding 
the  Constitution.  As  the  instrument  came  from  the 
Convention,  it  was  nothing  more  than  the  draft  of  a 
plan ;  nothing  but  a  dead  letter,  until  life  and  validity 
were  breathed  into  it  by  the  voice  of  the  people  speak- 
ing  through  the  several  state  Conventions  which  accept- 


590  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  ed  and  ratified  it.      Were  we  to  look  for  the  meaning 

VIII. 

of  the  instrument  beyond  its  face,  we  must  look,  not 
1796.  to  the  General  Convention  which  proposed  it,  but  to  the 
state  Conventions  which  accepted  it;*'  and  he  attempted, 
but  without  much  success,  to  gather  something  from  the 
published  debates  of  the  Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  and 
North  Carolina  Conventions  in  support  of  his  side  of  the 
question.  As  this  whole  subject  had  been  already  ex- 
hausted, no  reply  was  made  to  Madison's  speech,  and 
the  resolutions  were  adopted  fifty  seven  to  thirty-five. 

Meanwhile,  the  treaties  with  the  Northwestern  In- 
dians, with  Algiers,  and  with  Spain,  having  been  unani- 
mously ratified  by  the  Senate,  had  been  communicated 
to  the  House,  and  referred  to  a  Committee  of  the  Whole 
on  the  State  of  the  Union.  For  several  days  all  attempts 
to  go  into  such  a  committee  were  obstinately  voted  down. 
April  13  A  committee  having  at  length  been  obtained,  Sedgwick 
got  the  floor,  and,  before  any  of  the  documents  referred 
to  the  committee  had  been  read,  introduced  a  resolution 
(much  to  the  discomfiture  and  surprise  of  the  opposition, 
who  endeavored  to  get  rid  of  it  on  points  of  order),  that 
provision  ought  to  be  made  by  law  for  carrying  into  ef- 
fect, with  good  faith,  the  treaties  lately  concluded  with 
Algiers,  Great  Britain,  Spain,  and  the  Indians.  It  was 
urged  in  favor  of  taking  up  all  the  treaties  together  that, 
as  they  formed  part  of  one  system,  if  one  were  rejected, 
it  might  be  expedient  to  reject  the  others  also.  After 
a  violent  and  excited  debate,  in  which  much  ill  feeling 
was  displayed  on  both  sides,  first,  as  to  considering  the 
treaties  together,  and  then  as  to  which  should  have  the 
precedence,  it  was  finally  agreed  to  dispose  of  the  other 
treaties  before  taking  up  that  with  Great  Britain. 
While  yielding  this  point,  the  Federalists  consoled  them- 
selves with  tho  idea  that,  if  the  appropriations  for  the 


DEBATE    ON    JAY'S   TREAT*.  591 

British  treaty  should  be  voted  down  in  the  House,  the 

J 


viii. 
maneuver  of  putting  the  appropriations  for  all  the  treaties  ._ 

into  one  bill  might  still  be  revived  in  the  Senate,  so  that  1796. 
all  might  stand  or  fall  together.  It  was  suggested,  in- 
deed, that,  in  the  last  resort,  the  Senate  might  arrest 
the  Federal  City  Loan  Bill,  then  pending,  a  favorite  meas- 
ure with  the  South,  and  the  Land-office  Bill,  a  favorite 
of  the  West,  might  refuse  to  rise,  might  even  refuse  all 
appropriations,  and  in  thus  arresting  the  whole  opera- 
tions of  government,  might  refer  the  question  to  the  peo- 
ple to  decide. 

The  resolutions  as  to  the  other  treaties,  after  having 
been  so  modified  as  not  to  contradict  the  new  claim  of 
power  set  up  by  the  House,  passed  without  objection. 
On  the  resolution  as  to  the  British  treaty,  a  two  weeks' 
debate  ensued. 

Madison  opened  against  the  treaty  in  an  elaborate  April  u 
speech,  arranging  his  objections  under  three  heads.  So 
far  as  related  to  the  settlement  of  the  disputes  growing 
out  of  the  treaty  of  peace,  there  was,  he  maintained,  the 
grossest  want  of  reciprocity.  The  British  got  all  they 
claimed,  namely,  the  debts  due  their  merchants,  with 
damages  in  the  shape  of  interest.  For  the  negroes  car- 
ried off  we  got  nothing  ;  we  obtained,  indeed,  the  West- 
ern posts,  but  it  was  without  damages  for  detention,  and 
bhackled  with  conditions  respecting  the  Indian  trade 
which  made  their  possession  quite  nugatory  as  to  influ- 
ence over  the  Indians,  in  which  alone  their  value  con- 
sisted. The  agreement  to  pay  our  claims  for  spolia- 
tions was  no  offset  to  the  negro  claim,  because  both  were 
just,  and  both  ought  to  be  paid.  The  same  want  of 
reciprocity  prevailed  in  that  part  of  the  treaty  relating 
to  neutral  rights  and  the  law  of  nations.  We  had 
yielded  up  the  favorite  principle  that  free  ships  make  free 


592  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  goods;  we  had  added  naval  stores,  and  even  provisions. 

VIII 

r  to  the  list  of  contraband.      The  concession  to  certain 

1796.  British  subjects  of  the  right  to  hold  lands,  the  stipula- 
tion concerning  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the 
inequality  of  opening  all  American  ports  to  the  British, 
while  we  were  excluded  from  their  colonial  harbors,  were 
all  grounds  of  objection.  This  allowing  Britain  to  retain 
her  colonial  monopoly  was.  indeed,  "  a  phenomenon  which 
had  filled  him  with  more  surprise  than  he  knew  how  to 
express."  We  had  tied  up  our  hands,  too,  from  retalia- 
ting by  giving  up  the  right  of  further  discrimination. 
This,  indeed,  was  touching  Madison  in  a  sore  spot,  set- 
ting aside,  as  it  did  so  long  as  the  treaty  remained  in 
force,  his  favorite  scheme  of  commercial  coercion.  Nor 
was  there  any  reciprocity  in  yielding  up  the  right  of  se- 
questration, since  there  were  no  debts  in  England  due  to 
Americans  to  be  sequestrated.  As  to  our  trade  to  Great 
Britain  and  the  East  Indies,  we  had  previously  enjoyed 
every  thing  stipulated  by  the  treaty,  and  we  should  con- 
tinue to  enjoy  it  without  any  treaty,  since  it  was  only 
allowed  because  the  interest  of  Great  Britain  required  it. 

The  idea  of  war  as  a  consequence  of  rejecting  the 
treaty  he  thought  visionary  and  absurd.  We  should  not 
be  obliged  to  make  war  on  Great  Britain  ;  and  for  her 
to  make  war  upon  us,  pressed  as  she  was  by  France, 
would  argue  a  degree  of  madness  greater  than  could  well 
be  imagined. 

Swan  wick,  the  new  opposition  member  from  Phila- 
delphia, a  self-conceited  fop,  puffed  up  with  sudden 
wealth,  which  the  vast  profits  of  commerce  at  that  period 
had  thrown  into  his  hands,  scouted  all  the  commercial 
provisions  of  the  treaty,  especially  those  relating  to  the 
East  Indies.  Somewhat  to  the  surprise  of  the  Federalists, 
he  was  followed  much  in  the  same  strain  by  Smith  of 


DEBATE  ON  JAY'S  TREATY.          595 

Baltimore,  who  ended,  however,  with  expressing  an  in-  CHAFFER 

tention  to  vote  for  the  treaty,  because  the  majority  of 

his  constituents  seemed  to  be  in  favor  of  it.  Nicholas  1796 
dwelt  on  the  subject  cf  British  debts,  which  he  swelled  to 
the  enormous  amount  of  perhaps  fifteen  millions  of  dol- 
lars, though  Jefferson,  in  his  correspondence  with  the 
British  minister  (the  object  then  being  to  prove  that  the 
English  had  suffered  little  or  nothing),  had  reduced  them 
to  a  mere  trifle.  Giles  thought  the  provision  for  paying 
those  debts  would  lead  to  fraudulent  collusions  between 
the  creditors  and  their  debtors,  and  would  saddle  a  ter- 
rible burden  on  the  treasury.  The  compensation  to  the 
merchants  he  thought  quite  illusory,  as  every  thing  would 
depend  on  the  chance  of  a  favorable  fifth  commissioner. 
The  sequestration  article  he  represented  as  an  attack 
upon  the  House  of  Representatives,  which,  just  before 
the  negotiation  of  the  treaty,  had  voted  to  adopt  a  meas- 
ure of  that  sort.  He  also  took  great  offense  at  one  of 
Lord  Grenville's  official  letters  to  Pinckney,  written  be- 
fore Jay's  arrival,  in  which  he  had  ascribed  the  repeal 
of  the  first  provision  order,  in  part  at  least,  to  a  desire 
to  take  away  all  pretext  from  evil-disposed  persons  in 
America  who  seemed  desirous  to  produce  an  irritation 
against  Great  Britain,  and  to  bring  the  United  States 
into  the  same  political  condition  with  France — a  mis- 
fortune which  Grenville  deprecated,  as  well  for  the  sake 
of  the  American  people  as  for  the  common  welfare  and 
tranquillity  of  mankind.  Taking  into  view  the  subse- 
quent negotiation  and  treaty,  this  declaration  seemed  to 
Giles  positive  proof  of  a  dangerous  British  influence,  of 
which,  indeed,  the  treaty  itself  afforded  to  his  mind  am- 
ple evidence.  He  agreed  with  Nicholas  that  the  article 
respecting  provisions  was  a  covert  attack  upon  France, 
such  as  would  justly  give  her  offense,  amounting  in  sub- 
TV.—P  P 


594  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  stance  to  a  transfer  of  our  alliance  from  France  to  En- 
'  gland — a  proceeding  to  which  the  people  of  the  United 
1796.  States  would  not  submit.  Indeed,  he  considered  all  the 
articles  relating  to  privateers  and  ships  of  war,  as  "con- 
structive of  the  treaty  with  France,"  to  her  disadvant- 
age, an  unnecessary  interference  in  the  pending  European 
struggle,  and  a  dishonorable  departure  from  an  impartial 
neutrality.  The  alleged  danger  of  war  with  Great  Brit- 
ain, if  the  treaty  were  rejected,  he  thought,  might  be 
laid  quite  out  of  the  case.  Britain  would  at  any  time 
make  war  upon  us  whenever  it  wras  her  interest  to  do  so. 
The  proclamation  of  neutrality  had  not,  in  his  opinion, 
done  any  thing  toward  preserving  peace,  nor  would  the 
present  treaty.  Nothing  had  kept  Britain  from  making 
war  upon  us  but  the  success  of  the  French  arms,  and 
that  success,  greater  now  than  ever,  would  still  restrain 
her.  France  had  given  us  our  independence,  and  would 
maintain  it  for  us.  Upon  the  argument  in  relation  to 
France,  Preston,  another  Virginia  member,  dwelt  witl- 
still  greater  emphasis.  He  esteemed  the  treaty  a  shame- 
ful dereliction  of  our  friends,  and  in  direct  conflict  with 
all  sense  of  obligation,  gratitude,  and  friendship.  Page 
denounced  the  treaty  as  unconstitutional.  It  invaded 
the  powers  of  Congress  to  regulate  commerce,  and  on 
the  subject  of  British  debts  it  usurped  the  powers  of  the 
judiciary.  Findley  argued  that,  as  long  as  the  British 
held  Canada,  the  possession  of  the  Western  posts  would 
contribute  but  little  toward  peace  with  the  Indians,  in 
which  their  principal  value  was  supposed  to  consist. 

It  was  urged,  by  way  of  reply  to  these  multifarious 
objections,  that  we  had,  in  fact,  no  claim  for  the  negroes 
carried  away,  and  that,  such  being  the  case,  we  had 
committed  the  first  violation  of  the  treaty  by  obstructing 
the  collection  of  British  debts,  an  act  which  justified  the 


DEBATE  ON  JAY'S  TREATY.          59$ 

retention  of  the  posts,  and  so  left  us  no  claim  for  dam-  CHAPTER 

ages  on  that  account.     As  to  the  British  debts,  the  larger 

their  amount,  the  more  imperiously  did  honor  and  justice  1796. 
require  their  payment.  The  renunciation  of  the  power 
of  sequestrating  debts  was  vindicated  not  only  on  the 
ground  of  justice,  but  as  essential,  since  the  late  vote 
of  the  House  of  Representatives,  to  the  maintenance  of 
American  credit.  Williams  and  Cooper,  of  New  York, 
declared  their  personal  knowledge  as  to  the  value  of  the 
Indian  trade,  and  the  certainty  that  the  greater  part  of 
it  would  fall  into  American  hands.  Goodhue  replied  to 
the  criticisms  on  the  commercial  clauses  of  the  treaty. 
He  knew  the  value  of  the  East  India  trade,  which  Swans- 
wick  and  Smith  had  attempted  to  depreciate.  There 
were  thirty  vessels  from  Salem,  in  his  district,  engaged 
in  that  traffic,  and  their  participation  in  it  was  an  object 
of  envy  to  the  merchants  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
excluded  by  the  monopoly  of  the  British  East  India 
Company  from  any  share  in  a  lucrative  commerce  thus 
conceded  to  us — a  feeling  strongly  evinced  in  a  recent 
debate  in  the  Irish  House  of  Commons.  As  to  the  West 
India  trade,  why  expect  Great  Britain  to  abandon  her 
favorite  Navigation  Act  in  our  special  favor  ?  Why  not 
urge  the  same  complaints  against  Spain,  Portugal,  Hoi- 
land,  France  herself,  for  they  all,  except  when  under 
the  pressure  of  war,  pursued  precisely  the  same  policy  ? 
As  to  the  compensation  for  spoliations,  the  parties  most 
interested,  so  far  from  regarding  it  as  futile,  were  per- 
fectly satisfied,  and  looked  anxiously  for  the  ratification 
of  the  treaty.  It  was  to  be  expected  that  the  commis- 
sioners on  that  subject,  and  those  also  on  the  subject  of 
British  debts,  would  act  like  honest  men,  and  decide,  not 
from  considerations  of  country,  but  of  justice  and  evi- 
dence. Some  gentlemen  of  the  opposition,  not  content 


596  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  with  criticising  the  particular  provisions  on  the  subject 
'  of  commerce,  had  substantially  taken  the  ground  that  no 
1796.  commercial  treaty  with  Britain  was  needed.  Strange 
doctrine  in  the  mouths  of  men  ready,  at  the  very  pre- 
vious session  of  Congress,  to  force  her  into  a  commercial 
treaty  by  special  restrictions  on  her  commerce ! 

As  to  contraband  and  neutral  rights,  the  law  of  na- 
tions had  been  the  rule  and  limitation  of  our  concessions. 
That  neutral  bottoms  should  make  free  goods  was  a  novel 
doctrine  to  which  Great  Britain  had  never  assented,  and 
to  which  even  France,  in  spite  of  her  express  treaty 
agreement  with  us,  did  not  conform.  Could  we,  with- 
out a  single  ship  of  war  afloat,  undertake  to  dictate  the 
law  of  nations  to  Great  Britain  ?  And  was  it  not  wise, 
since,  in  certain  cases,  she  would  seize  our  provisions 
when  bound  to  the  ports  of  her  enemies,  at  least  to  pro- 
vide that  cargoes  so  seized  should  be  paid  for  ?  As  .to 
the  alleged  inconsistency  of  some  of  the  articles  with 
the  rights  of  France  under  her  treaty  with  us,  there 
was  in  one  of  the  articles  an  express  saving  of  all  those 
rights. 

"  Are  we  reduced  to  that  low  situation,"  asked  Hill- 
house,  "  that  we  may  not  grant  indulgences  to  a  foreign 
nation  for  the  sake  of  obtaining  advantages  to  ourselves 
when  such  nation  happens  to  be  at  war  with  France  ? 
That  would  be  making  us  a  colony  in  good  earnest.  The 
independence  and  freedom  of  America  depended,  he  be- 
lieved, not  upon  the  good  or  the  ill  will  of  any  nation 
upon  earth,  but  solely  on  the  will  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States." 

The  prospect  of  obtaining  another  and  a  better  treaty 
by  further  negotiation  had  been  held  out  by  Madison 
and  others.  This  point  was  well  handled  by  Coit  of 
Connecticut.  He  would  "  like  to  see  the  gentleman 


MOVEMENTS  OUT  OF  DOORS.         597 

from  Virginia,  wrapped  up  in  his  mantle  of  doubts  and  CHAPTER 

problems,  going  on  a  mission  to  the  court  of  London  to 

clear  up  this  business.  High  as  his  respect  was  for  that  1796 
gentleman's  abilities,  he  yet  feared  they  would  prove  in- 
competent to  the  task,  even  if  aided  by  the  collection 
said  to  be  making  of  the  speeches  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives on  the  treaty-making  power.  However  gen- 
tlemen might  declare  that  the  construction  of  our  Con- 
stitution must  lie  with  ourselves,  unless,  by  a  construction 
consistent  with  reason  and  the  common  sense  of  man- 
kind, we  could  satisfy  the  world  that  we  were  not  bound 
by  the  treaty,  we  should  be  pronounced  a  faithless  na- 
tion ;  nor  could  a  vote  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
against  the  sense  of  the  president  and  Senate,  and  a 
great  proportion  of  the  American  people,  be  expected  to 
remove  the  imputation.  What  hope,  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, that  Great  Britain  would  consent  to  renew 
the  negotiation  ?" 

While  these  debates  were  going  on  in  the  House,  the 
people  out  of  doors,  especially  those  of  the  commercial 
cities,  grew  more  and  more  agitated.  The  danger,  should 
the  treaty  be  rejected,  that  a  war  with  Great  Britain 
would  follow,  began  to  inspire  serious  alarm.  Insurance 
against  capture  could  no  longer  be  obtained,  and  com- 
merce received  a  sudden  check.  Petitions  began  to  pour 
in  from  all  sides — from  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Balti- 
more, Boston,  and  from  numerous  other  places,  in  favor 
of  ratification.  Much  to  the  chagrin  of  Findley  and  Gal- 
latin  ;  such  a  petition  came  even  from  the  trans- Allegany 
region  which  they  represented.  Nor  were  the  opponents 
of  the  treaty  idle.  They  held  counter-meetings  and  got 
up  counter-petitions.  The  Boston  Democrats,  encour- 
aged by  the  recent  re-election  of  Samuel  Adams  as  gov- 
ernor, and  by  their  success  in  choosing  to  the  state  Sen- 


598      HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

CHAPTER  ate  Austin  and  Eustis,  two  of  their  leaders,  ventured  to 

VIIJ 

call  a  town  meeting,  in  hopes  to  counterbalance  the  pe- 
1796.  tition  in  favor  of  ratification  got  up  by  the  merchants. 
In  this,  however,  they  were  sadly  disappointed,  the  town 
meeting  having  voted  decidedly  in  favor  of  ratifying 
The  number  of  petitioners  was  about  equal  on  either 
side,  but  the  decided  weight  of  wealth  and  intelligence 
was  with  the  friends  of  the  treaty.  The  opposers,  in- 
deed, in  the  commercial  cities  consisted,  for  the  most 
part,  of  men  who,  in  spite  of  their  clamor  about  spolia- 
tions, had  little  or  nothing  to  lose,  headed  by  a  few  per- 
sons of  wealth  and  intelligence,  some  impelled  by  the 
spirit  of  faction,  and  others  by  that  deep  antipathy  to 
Great  Britain,  the  residuum 'of  the  Revolutionary  strug- 
gle, which  formed  the  ruling  motive  of  the  mass  of  their 
party.  The  agitation  throughout  the  country  became, 
indeed,  so  great  as  to  impress  the  warnings  repeatedly 
given  that  the  rejection  of  the  treaty  might  not  only  oc- 
casion a  British  and  an  Indian  war,  but  might  endanger 
even  the  Union  itself. 

Bond,  the  British  charge  des  affaires,  had  already 
intimated  that,  if  the  House  refused  the  appropriations 
for  carrying  the  treaty  into  effect,  the  Western  posts 
would  not  be  given  up.  He  insisted,  also,  on  an  ex- 
planatory article  in  relation  to  a  clause  in  Wayne's  treaty 
with  the  Indians,  by  which  they  had  stipulated  to  allow 
no  trader  to  reside  among  them  unless  licensed  by  the 
authorities  of  the  United  States,  and  which  seemed  to 
be  in  conflict  with  the  provision  of  Jay's  treaty  for  a 
mutual  free  trade  with  the  Indians.  This  demand  was 
reasonable  enough,  and  the  manner  of  it  was  unexcep- 
tionable. Yet  it  was  felt  as  an  unwise  pressure  at  a 
moment  when  the  treaty  was  hanging  balanced  in  the 
House,  especially  as  the  prior  stipulation  in  Jay's  treaty 


DEBATE  ON  JAY'S  TREATY.         599 

would  seem  to  over-ride  the  article  complained  of,  that  CHAPTER 
having  been  made  in  ignorance  of  Jay's  provision.  

As  the  tide  of  public  sentiment  was  evidently  setting  1796. 
in  favor  of  the  treaty,  the  debate  was  protracted  by 
those  in  favor  of  it  for  the  very  purpose  of  giving  that 
sentiment  further  time  to  operate.  So  stood  the  case 
when  it  devolved  on  Gallatin  to  attempt  to  recover  for  April  26. 
his  party  the  ground  fast  slipping  from  beneath  their 
feet;  or,  if  that  could  not  be,  to  take  up  some  new  po- 
sition more  defensible  than  that  of  a  peremptory  rejec- 
tion. Joining  to  the  impetuous  audacity  and  violent 
spirit  of  Giles  and  Nicholas  all  the  calm  self-possession, 
the  apparent  moderation,  the  ingenious  argument  of 
Madison,  by  his  effort  on  this  occasion,  whatever  might 
be  thought  of  his  candor  and  fairness,  Gallatin  estab- 
lished, beyond  all  dispute,  his  reputation  as  a  dexterous 
and  unflinching  politician,  and  his  sole  title  to  that  lead- 
ership of  the  opposition  in  the  House  hitherto  shared  by 
Madison  and  Giles. 

On  the  subject  of  the  negroes,  he  took  a  new  position, 
quoting  Vattel,  to  show  that  slaves,  being  real  estate, 
were  not  a  subject  of  booty,  but,  on  the  restoration  of 
peace,  fell  back  to  their  former  owners,  like  the  soil  to 
which  they  were  attached.  He  objected  with  great  em- 
phasis to  the  articles  respecting  the  Indian  trade  and  the 
British  navigation  of  the  Mississippi.  The  article  re- 
specting spoliations  he  admitted  to  be  good.  However 
the  rights  of  the  South  and  West  had  been  sacrificed, 
means  had  been  found  to  protect  the  commercial  inter- 
ests of  the  North.  Yet  he  scouted  the  commercial  arti- 
cles of  the  treaty  as  totally  worthless,  and  insinuated 
that,  if  the  Senate  had  known  as  much  about  the  East 
India  as  about  the  West  India  trade,  the  articles  on  both 
subjects  would  have  been  rejected.  Gallatin,  like  the 


(300  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  rest  of  the  opposition,  persisted  in  assuming,  notwith- 
standing   repeated   explanations,   that   the    East    India 
1796.  coasting  trade,  and  the  direct  voyage  from  India  to  Eu- 
rope, not  being  expressly  secured  by  the  treaty,  had,  in 
fact,  been  relinquished  by  it. 

If  England  would  not  concede  the  point  that  neutral 
bottoms  made  free  goods,  we,  at  least,  ought  not,  by  an 
act  of  treachery  to  the  other  nations  of  Europe,  express- 
ly to  admit  the  opposite  doctrine.  It  was  not  mere- 
ly to  secure  a  lucrative  commerce  that  the  right  of  neu- 
trals in  this  respect  was  to  be  maintained,  but  chiefty 
to  avoid  the  infinite  vexations  growing  out  of  the  de- 
tention of  neutral  vessels  on  the  pretense  that  they  had 
enemy's  goods  on  board — a  pretense  on  which  greedy 
privateers  and  unscrupulous  admiralty  courts  would  be 
always  ready  to  seize.  Taken  in  connection  with  our 
other  treaties,  which  excluded  naval  stores  and  provisions 
from  the  list  of  contraband,  the  admitting  them  as  such 
in  the  British  treaty  amounted,  in  his  view,  to  a  positive 
contract  to  secure  to  Great  Britain  an  exclusive  supply 
of  those  articles  during  the  war.  He  contended  with 
zeal  for  the  justice  and  policy  of  the  sequestration  of  pri- 
vate debts  as  a  measure  of  coercion,  and  summed  up  this 
view  of  the  case  by  maintaining  that,  while  we  had 
promised  full  indemnity  to  England  for  every  possible 
claim  against  us,  we  had  abandoned  every  claim  of  a 
doubtful  nature,  had  consented  to  receive  the  Western 
posts  under  great  restrictions  as  to  our  exclusive  control 
over  the  Indian  trade,  and  had  made  arrangements  re- 
specting trade  and  navigation  by  which  we  gained  noth- 
ing, while  we  had  parted  with  every  pledge  in  our  hands, 
every  power  of  restriction,  every  weapon  of  self-defense. 
Should  the  treaty  be  set  aside,  there  would,  he  admit- 
ted,  be  little  prospect  of  obtaining  another.  In  that  case 


DEBATE  ON  JAY'S  TREATY.          gQ} 

we  should  lose  the  indemnity  for  spoliations ;   but,  look-  CHAPTER 

ing  at  the  matter  in  a  pecuniary  light  only,  we  should 

probably  be  gainers  by  escaping  the  payment  of  the  Brit-  1796 
ish  debts.  The  only  other  loss  would  be  the  Western 
posts ;  but  the  provisions  of  the  treaty  rendered  those 
posts  quite  valueless,  either  as  supports  to  trade  or  as 
security  to  the  frontiers.  Yet  the  obtaining  the  posts, 
valueless  as  they  were,  the  saving  the  national  honor  by 
some  appearance  of  indemnity  for  spoliations,  and,  con- 
sidering the  present  state  of  the  country,  the  putting  a 
stop  to  agitations  by  settling  our  disputes  with  Great 
Britain,  would  reconcile  him  to  the  treaty,  injurious  and 
unequal  as  he  conceived  it  to  be,  and  repugnant  as  it  was 
to  his  feelings,  but  for  the  conduct  of  Great  Britain,  since 
it  was  signed,  in  pressing  our  seamen  and  stopping  our 
provision-ships.  Looking  at  the  general  conduct  of  Great 
Britain  toward  us,  and  the  means  by  which  she  had 
procured  the  treaty,  a  final  compliance  on  our  part,  while 
she  persisted  in  that  same  course  of  conduct,  and  still 
held  over  us  the  chastising  rod,  would  be,  in  his  opinion, 
a  dereliction  of  national  interest,  of  honor,  and  of  inde- 
pendence. He  therefore  preferred,  even  at  the  risk  of 
the  loss  of  the  reparations  offered,  not  a  rejection  of  the 
treaty  altogether,  which  nobody  on  his  side,  so  he  boldly 
asserted,  had  ever  thought  of,  but  a  suspension,  a  post- 
ponement of  it,  \vhile  the  present  encroachments  con- 
tinued, in  hopes  to  obtain  reparation  for  them  also,  and 
assurances  that  they  would  cease.  It  would,  indeed,  be 
madness  to  plunge  the  United  States  into  war,  but  he 
regarded  that  as  a  chimerical  danger.  On  our  side,  war 
could  only  be  declared  by  act  of  Congress ;  and,  grant- 
ing that  a  majority  of  the  House  wished  it,  which  he  to- 
tally denied,  the  declaration  would  surely  be  arrested  by 
the  president  and  Senate.  As  for  England,  engaged  as 


$02  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  she  was  in  military  operations  in  the  West  Indies,  all 

'      the  supplies  for  which  were  derived  from  us,  it  was  not 

1796.  her  interest  to  commence  hostilities;   and  if  peace  took 

place  in  Europe,  of  which  there  seemed  some  prospect. 

happy  to  escape  from  one  of  the  most  bloody,  expensive, 

and  dangerous  wars  in  which  she  had  ever  been  engaged, 

she  would  hardly  desire  to  plunge  afresh  into  a  similar 

calamity. 

But  to  the  cry  of  war  the  alarmists  had  added  that  of 
confusion.  It  had  been  urged  even  on  this  floor  that,  if 
the  treaty  failed,  the  government  would  be  dissolved. 
Who  would  dissolve  it?  The  triumphant  majority  would 
have  no  motive  to  do  so ;  and  surely  the  self-styled  friends 
of  order  would  not,  at  the  first  failure  of  their  power, 
revenge  themselves  by  overthrowing  the  government. 
Whatever  might  be  the  wishes  or  intentions  of  members 
of  this  House,  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  was  a  matter 
to  be  decided,  not  by  them,  but  by  the  people.  The  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States,  from  one  end  of  the  Union  to 
the  other,  were  strongly  attached  to  the  Constitution, 
and  they  \vould  restrain  and  punish  the  excesses  of  any 
party  and  of  any  set  of  men  guilty  of  any  attempt  against 
it.  He  rested  in  full  security  on  the  people  against  any 
endeavor  to  destroy  our  Union  or  our  government. 

He  had  no  fears  of  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  yet  the 
desire  to  promote  a  greater  harmony  of  sentiment  had 
been  with  him  one  of  the  most  urgent  motives  in  favor 
of  suspending  the  treaty,  instead  of  rejecting  it.  It  was, 
indeed,  difficult  to  say  which  mode  of  proceeding  would 
best  accord  with  public  opinion.  Taking  as  a  guide  tho 
petitions  presented  to  the  House,  the  number  of  signa- 
tures against  the  treaty  somewhat  exceeded,  at  the  mo- 
ment he  was  speaking,  the  number  in  its  favor.  A  com- 
bination to  produce  alarm  had,  indeed,  been  lately  got  up 


DEBATE  ON  JAF'S  TREATY.          Q  Q  3 

among  the  merchants  of  Philadelphia  and  other  sea-ports.  CHAPTEH 

To  induce  the  people  to  join  in  the  attempt  to  force  the 

House  to  pass  laws  for  carrying  the  treaty  into  execu-  1790 
tion,  they -had  combined  together  to  cease  insuring  ves- 
sels, purchasing  produce,  or  transacting  any  business. 
He  considered  the  cry  of  war,  the  threats  of  a  dissolu- 
tion of  the  government,  and  the  present  alarm,  as  all  de- 
signed for  the  same  purpose,  that  of  making  an  impres- 
sion on  the  fears  of  the  House.  "  It  was  in  the  fear  of 
being  involved  in  a  war  that  the  negotiation  with  Great 
Britain  had  originated ;  under  the  impression  of  fear  the 
treaty  had  been  negotiated  and  signed ;  fear  had  pro- 
moted its  ratification  ;  and  now,  every  imaginary  mis- 
chief was  conjured  up  to  frighten  the  Hou^e,  to  deprive 
it  of  that  discretion  which  it  had  a  right  to  exercise,  to 
force  it  to  carry  this  treaty  into  effect !" 

To  listen  calmly  to  this  denunciation  of  Washington 
and  Jay,  as  having  pusillanimously  surrendered  the  hon- 
or of  their  country — Washington  in  setting  on  foot  and 
in  ratifying,  and  Jay  in  having  negotiated  the  treaty — 
coming,  as  it  did,  from  the  mouth  of  one  whose  evident 
youth  and  foreign  accent  might  alone  serve  to  betray 
him  as  an  adventurer,  whose  arrival  in  the  country  could 
hardly  have  been  long  anterior  to  the  termination  of  the 
Revolutionary  struggle — was  somewhat  too  much  for 
human  patience  to  bear.  There  was  also  something  a 
little  provoking  in  the  denunciation  of  the  merchants,  as 
having  conspired  to  terrify  the  House,  coming  from  a 
man  who  had  first  obtained  general  notoriety,  it  was  now 
hardly  four  years  since,  by  the  publication  of  his  name 
at  the  bottom  of  a  series  of  resolutions,  of  which  the 
avowed  object  was  to  frighten  public  officers  from  the  dis- 
charge of  their  duty  by  threats  of  a  social  interdict  and 
non-intercourse — a  method  of  proceeding  which  had  ended 


604  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  in  violent  resistance  to  the  laws  and  armed  insurrection. 

'     Nor   is   it  very  surprising,   all   things   considered,  that 

1796.  many  of  the  Federalists  were  inclined  to  look  on  Galla- 

tin  as  a  foreign  emissary,  a  tool  of  France,  employed  and 

paid  to  make  mischief. 

Several  of  the  chief  points  of  Gallatin's  speech  were 
answered  by  Tracy.  As  to  the  discovery  out  of  Vattel 
that  slaves  could  not  be  carried  off  as  booty,  in  the  first 
place,  Vattel  said  no  such  thing ;  and,  in  the  second 
place,  the  British  did  not  refuse  to  restore  them  as  booty 
but  as  men ;  men  made  free  as  a  reward  for  having 
joined  the  British  standard,  and  whom  no  law,  human 
or  divine,  could  or  ought  to  compel  to  return  to  their 
former  slavery.  Nor  was  the  so  much  condemned  doc- 
trine of  the  seizure  of  enemy's  goods  in  neutral  bottoms 
liable,  in  his  opinion,  to  all  the  objections  urged  against 
it.  It  was  the  right  of  all  nations  to  carry  their  own 
property  to  such  places  as  they  pleased,  not  thereby  in- 
fringing the  rights  of  others.  But  when  two  nations 
are  at  war,  what  right  had  a  third  nation  to  assist  either 
by  transporting  its  goods  across  the  ocean  free  from  the 
danger  of  being  captured  ? 

If  the  appropriation  to  carry  the  treaty  into  effect  was 
refused,  he  considered  the  peace  of  the  country  in  immi- 
nent danger.  "  We  are  not  disposed  to  go  to  war  with 
Great  Britain,  say  gentlemen.  She  will  have  no  reason 
to  go  to  war  with  us ;  and  they  ask,  with  an  air  of  tri- 
umphant complacency,  how,  then,  is  there  to  be  a  war  ? 
But  look  at  the  probable  state  of  things.  Great  Britain 
is  to  retain  the  Western  posts,  and  with  them  the  confi- 
dence of  the  Indians.  She  makes  no  compensation  for  the 
millions  spoliated  from  our  commerce,  but  adds  new  mill- 
ions to  our  already  heavy  losses.  Would  Americans 
quietly  see  their  government  strut,  look  big,  call  hard 


DEBATE  ON  JAY'S  TREATY 

names,  repudiate  treaties,  and  then  tamely  put  up  with  CHAPTEK 

new  and  aggravated  injuries  ?     Whatever  might  be  the L_ 

case  in  other  parts  of  the  Union,  his  constituents  were  1796 
not  of  a  temper  to  dance  round  a  whisky  pole  one  day 
cursing  the  government,  and  to  sneak  the  next  day  into 
a  swamp  on  hearing  that  a  military  force  was  march- 
ing against  them.  They  knew  their  rights,  and,  if  the 
government  were  unable  or  unwilling  to  give  them  pro- 
tection, would  find  other  means  to  secure  it.  He  could 
not  feel  thankful  to  any  gentleman  for  coming  all  the 
way  from  Geneva  to  accuse  Americans  of  pusillanimity." 
Half  a  dozen  of  the  opposition,  greatly  excited,  called 
Tracy  to  order,  and  some  confusion  ensued.  But  Muh- 
lenburg,  who  was  in  the  chair,  pronounced  him  in  order, 
and  directed  him  to  go  on.  He  took  occasion,  however, 
to  disclaim  any  intention  to  be  personal,  and  to  beg  par- 
don for  any  impropriety  into  which  the  heat  of  debate 
might  have  carried  him,  excusing  himself  on  the  ground 
of  the  feeling  naturally  excited  by  such  charges  coming 
from  such  a  source  against  the  American  government 
and  people. 

But  the  great  speech  in  favor  of  the  treaty  was  made  April  an 
by  Ames,  whom  a  large  audience  had  collected  to  hear. 
He  had  been  detained  from  the  House  during  the  early 
part  of  the  session  by  an  access  of  that  disorder  which 
made  all  the  latter  part  of  his  life  one  long  disease. 
Rising  from  his  seat,  pale,  feeble,  hardly  able  to  stand 
or  to  speak,  but  warming  with  the  subject,  he  delivered 
a  speech  which,  for  comprehensive  knowledge  of  human 
nature  and  of  the  springs  of  political  action,  for  caustic 
ridicule,  keen  argument,  and  pathetic  eloquence,  even  in 
the  imperfect  shape  in  which  we  possess  it,  has  very  sel- 
dom been  equaled  on  that  or  any  other  floor.  The  ex- 
tracts which  follow  possess  a  high  historical  value  from 


tf()6  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  light  which  they  throw  on  the  state  of  parties,  and 

VIII 

the  lively  picture  which  they  give  of  the  excited  political 

1  796.  feelings  of  those  times.  "  I  shall  be  asked,"  said  Ames, 
"  why  a  treaty  so  good  in  some  articles  and  so  harmless 
in  others  has  met  with  such  unrelenting  opposition  ? 
The  apprehensions  so  extensively  diffused  on  its  first 
publication  will  be  vouched  as  proof  that  the  treaty  is 
bad,  and  that  the  people  hold  it  in  abhorrence. 

"  1  am  not  embarrassed  to  find  the  answer  to  this  in- 
sinuation. Certainly,  a  foresight  of  its  pernicious  opera- 
tion could  not  have  created  all  the  fears  that  were  felt 
or  affected.  The  alarm  spread  faster  than  the  publica- 
tion of  the  treaty.  There  were  more  critics  than  read- 
ers. Besides,  as  the  subject  was  examined,  those  fears 
have  subsided.  The  movements  of  passion  are  quicker 
than  those  of  the  understanding.  We  are  to  search  for 
the  causes  of  first  impressions,  not  in  the  treaty  itself, 
but  in  the  state  of  public  feeling. 

"  The  fervor  of  the  war  of  the  Revolution  had  not  en- 
tirely  cooled,  nor  its  controversies  ceased,  before  the  sens- 
ibility of  our  citizens  was  quickened  into  a  tenfold  vi- 
vacity by  a  new  and  extraordinary  subject  of  irritation. 
One  of  the  two  great  nations  of  Europe  underwent  a 
change  which  has  attracted  all  our  wonder  and  interest- 
ed all  our  sympathy.  Whatever  that  nation  did,  the 
zeal  of  many  went  with  it,  and  often  to  excess.  These 
impressions  met  with  much  to  inflame,  and  nothing  to 
restrain  them.  In  our  newspapers,  in  our  feasts,  and  in 
some  of  our  elections,  enthusiasm  was  admitted  a  merit, 
a  test  of  patriotism,  and  that  made  it  contagious.  In 
the  opinion  of  party,  we  could  not  love  nor  hate  enough 
In  spite  of  all  the  obloquy  it  may  provoke,  I  dare  to  say 
it,  we  were  extravagant  in  both.  It  is  my  right  to  avow 
th^t  passions  so  impetuous,  enthusiasm  so  wild,  could 


DEBATE    ON    JAY'S    TREATY.  6Q7 

not  subsist  without  disturbing  the  sober  exercise  of  reason,  CHAPTER 

VIII. 

without  putting  at  risk  the  peace  and  precious  interests 

of  our  country.  They  were  hazarded  :  I  will  not  exhaust  1796. 
the  little  breath  I  have  left  to  say  how  much  or  by  whom, 
or  how  they  were  rescued  from  the  sacrifice.  No  one 
has  forgotten  the  proceedings  of  1794;  no  one  has  for- 
gotten the  capture  of  our  vessels,  and  the  imminent  dan- 
ger of  war.  The  nation  thirsted  not  merely  for  repara- 
tion, but  for  vengeance.  Suffering  such  wrongs,  and 
agitated  by  such  resentments,  was  it  in  the  power  of  any 
words  of  compact,  or  could  any  parchment  with  its  seals 
prevail,  at  once  to  tranquilize  the  people  ?  Even  the 
best  treaty,  though  nothing  be  refused,  will  choke  re- 
sentment, but  not  satisfy  it.  Every  treaty  is  as  sure 
to  disappoint  extravagant  expectations  as  to  disarm  ex- 
travagant passions.  Hatred  is  a  passion  that  takes  no 
bribes ;  they  who  are  animated  by  the  spirit  of  revenge 
will  not  be  quieted  by  the  possibility  of  profit. 

"Why  complain  that  the  West  Indies  are  not  laid 
open  ?  Why  lament  at  restrictions  on  the  commerce  of 
the  East  Indies  ?  Why  pretend  that,  if  this  be  rejected 
and  more  be  insisted  on,  more  would  be  obtained  ?  Let 
us  be  explicit.  More  would  not  satisfy.  Let  all  be 
granted,  and  a  treaty  of  amity  with  Great  Britain  would 
still  be  obnoxious.  Have  we  not  heard  it  urged  against 
our  envoy  that  he  was  not  ardent  enough  in  his  hatred 
of  Great  Britain  ?  A  treaty  of  arnity  is  condemned  be- 
cause it  was  not  made  by  a  foe,  and  in  the  spirit  of  one  ! 
The  same  gentleman  repeated  a  very  prevalent  objection, 
that  no  treaty  should  be  made  with  the  enemy  of  France. 
No  treaty,  exclaim  others,  with  a  monarch  or  a  despot ; 
there  will  be  no  naval  security  while  those  sea-robbers 
domineer  on  the  ocean  ;  their  den  must  be  destroyed ; 
the  nation  must  be  extirpated ! 


HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 
CHAPTER       "  Sir,  I  like  this,  because  it  is  sincerity.     With  feel- 

VTTT 

'  ings  such  as  these,  we  do  not  pant  for  treaties.  Such  pas- 
1  796.  sions  seek  nothing,  and  will  be  content  with  nothing  but 
the  destruction  of  their  object.  If  a  treaty  left  King 
George  his  island,  it  would  not  answer,  not  if  he  stipu- 
lated to  pay  rent  for  it.  It  has  been  said  the  world 
ought  to  rejoice  if  Britain  were  sunk  in  the  sea ;  if, 
where  there  are  now  men  and  wealth,  and  laws  and  lib- 
erty, there  were  no  more  than  a  sand-bank  for  sea-mon- 
sters to  fatten  on,  a  space  for  the  storms  of  the  ocean  to 
mingle  in  conflict.  I  object  nothing  to  the  good  sense 
and  humanity  of  all  this ;  I  yield  the  point  that  this  is 
a  proof  that  the  age  of  reason  is  in  progress.  Let  it  be 
philanthropy,  let  it  be  patriotism  if  you  will ;  but  it  is 
no  indication  that  any  treaty  would  be  approved.  The 
difficulty  is,  not  to  overcome  the  objections  to  the  terms, 
but  to  restrain  the  repugnance  to  any  stipulations  of 
amity  with  the  party. 

"Having  alluded  to  the  rival  of  Great  Britain,  I  am 
not  unwilling  to  explain  myself.  I  affect  no  conceal- 
ment, and  I  have  practiced  none.  While  those  two  great 
nations  agitate  all  Europe  with  their  quarrels,  they  will 
both  equally  endeavor  to  create  an  influence  in  America. 
Each  will  exert  all  its  arts  to  range  our  strength  on  its 
own  side.  But  how  is  this  to  be  effected  ?  As  our  gov- 
ernment is  a  democratical  republic,  it  will  not  be  dis- 
posed to  pursue  a  system  of  politics  in  subservience  either 
to  England  or  France  in  opposition  to  the  general  wishes 
of  the  citizens.  Even  should  Congress  adopt  such  meas- 
ures, they  would  not  be  pursued  long,  nor  with  much 
success.  From  the  nature  of  our  government,  popular- 
ity is  the  instrument  of  foreign  influence.  Without  it, 
all  is  labor  and  disappointment ;  with  that  mighty  aux- 
iliary, foreign  intrigue  finds  agents,  not  only  volunteers, 


DEBATE    ON    JAY'S    TREAT? 

but  competitors  for  employment,  and  any  thing  like  re-  CHAPTEK 

luctarice  is  understood  to  be  a  crime.     Has  Britain  this _, 

means  of  influence  ?  Certainly  not.  If  her  gold  could  1796. 
buy  adherents,  their  becoming  such  would  deprive  them 
of  all  political  power  and  importance.  They  would  not 
wield  popularity  as  a  weapon,  but  would  fall  under  it. 
Britain  has  no  influence,  and,  for  the  reasons  just  given, 
can  have  none.  She  has  enough — God  forbid  she  should 
ever  have  more.  France,  possessed  of  popular  enthusi- 
asm, of  party  attachments,  has  had,  and  still  has,  too 
much  influence  on  our  politics.  Any  foreign  influence 
is  too  much,  and  ought  to  be  destroyed.  I  detest  the 
man  and  disdain  the  spirit  that  can  bend  to  a  mean  sub- 
serviency to  the  view  of  any  nation.  It  is  enough  to  be 
Americans  ;  that  character  comprehends  our  duties,  and 
ought  to  engross  our  attachments.  But  I  would  not  be 
misunderstood  ;  I  would  not  break  the  alliance  with 
France ;  I  would  not  have  the  connection  between  the 
two  countries  even  a  cold  one ;  it  should  be  cordial  and 
sincere.  But  I  would  banish  that  influence  which,  by 
acting  on  the  passions  of  the  citizens,  may  acquire  a 
power  over  the  government." 

Among  the  numerous  evils,  all  of  which  could  not  be 
foreseen,  sure  to  result  from  the  refusal  to  make  provi- 
sion for  giving  effect  to  the  treaty,  Ames  placed,  first 
and  foremost,  the  disgrace  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  and 
of  ourselves  of  a  breach  of  national  faith.  This  topic 
was  treated  with  an  admirable  mixture  of  declamation 
and  argument.  Appealing  to  the  hearts  as  well  as  the 
understandings  of  the  members  on  the  inestimable  im- 
portance of  fidelity  to  public  engagements,  he  added  a 
keen  and  convincing  exposure  of  the  untenable  and  Jesu- 
itical position  assumed  by  the  House  in  disclaiming  any 
participation  in  the  treaty-making  power,  and  yet  claim- 
IV.— Q  Q 


fjlO  HISTORY    OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  ing  the  right  to  decide  upon  the  merits  of  a  treaty,  and 

VIII 

.  to  defeat  its  execution.      Among  the  minor  evils  to  re- 

1796.  suit  from  the  rejection,  he  urged  the  loss  of  five  millions 
of  dollars  to  the  merchants  who  had  suffered  by  British 
spoliations,  and  who  were  anxiously  looking  to  the  treaty 
for  indemnity;  also,  the  renewal  of  the  Indian  war  on  the 
frontier,  likely  to  result  from  the  retention  of  the  posts  by 
the  British.  "On  this  theme,"  he  exclaimed,  umy  emo- 
tions are  unutterable  !  If  I  could  find  words  for  them — 
if  my  powers  bore  any  proportion  to  my  zeal,  I  would 
swell  my  voice  to  such  a  note  of  remonstrance,  it  should 
reach  every  log-house  beyond  the  mountains.  I  would 
say  to  the  inhabitants,  <  Wake  from  your  false  security ! 
Your  cruel  dangers,  your  more  cruel  apprehensions,  are 
soon  to  be  renewed.  The  wounds  yet  unhealed  are  to 
be  torn  open  again.  In  the  day-time  your  path  through 
the  woods  will  be  ambushed  ;  the  darkness  of  midnight 
will  glitter  with  the  blaze  of  your  dwellings.  You  are 
a  father — the  blood  of  your  sons  shall  fatten  your  corn- 
field ;  you  are  a  mother — the  war-whoop  shall  wake  the 
sleep  of  the  cradle  !'  On  this  subject  you  need  not  sus- 
pect any  deception  on  your  feelings  ;  it  is  a  spectacle  of 
horror  which  can  not  be  overdrawn.  If  you  have  na- 
ture in  your  hearts,  they  will  speak  a  language  compared 
with  which  all  I  have  said  or  can  say  will  be  poor  and 
frigid. 

"  It  is  vain  to  offer  as  an  excuse  that  public  men  are  not 
to  be  reproached  for  the  evils  that  may  happen  to  ensue 
from  their  measures.  This  is  very  true  when  those  evils 
are  unforeseen  or  inevitable.  But  those  I  have  depicted 
are  not  unforeseen;  they  are  so  far  from  inevitable  that 
we  are  going  to  bring  them  into  being  by  our  vote.  By 
rejecting  the  posts,  we  light  the  savage  fires,  we  bind  the 
victims.  This  day  we  undertake  to  render  an  account 


DEBATE  DM  JAY'S  TREATY.          611 

to    the   widows    and    orphans   whom    our   decision   will  CHAPTER 

vm. 
make  !"  

Finally,  he  passed  to  the  still  more  serious  evil,  the  1796. 
danger  of  a  war  with  Great  Britain,  should  the  treaty 
be  rejected  ;   and,  in  case  of  such  a  war,  the  additional 
danger  even  of  civil  commotions. 

"  The  idea  of  war  has  been  treated  as  a  bugbear. 
This  levity  is  at  least  unseasonable,  and,  most  of  all,  un- 
becoming some  who  resort  to  it.  Who  has  forgotten  the 
philippics  of  1794?  The  cry  then  was  reparation,  no 
envoy,  no  treaty,  no  tedious  delays.  Now,  it  seems,  the 
passion  subsides,  or,  at  least,  the  hurry  to  satisfy,  it. 
Now  they  give  us  excellent  comfort,  truly.  Great  Brit- 
ain has  seized  our  vessels  and  cargoes  to  the  amount  of 
millions  ;  she  holds  the  posts ;  she  interrupts  our  trade 
as  a  neutral  nation  ;  and  these  gentlemen,  late  so  fierce 
for  redress,  now  tell  us,  <  Great  Britain  will  bear  all  this 
patiently.'  But  will  our  own  nation  bear  it  ?  Will  it 
add  to  the  quiet  of  our  citizens  to  see  their  rights  aban- 
doned ?  Will  not  the  disappointment  now,  in  the  very 
crisis  of  their  being  realized,  of  their  hopes,  so  long  pat- 
ronized by  the  government,  convert  all  their  passions  into 
fury  and  despair  ? 

"  Wars  in  all  countries,  and  most  of  all  in  such  as 
are  free,  arise  from  the  impetuosity  of  public  feeling. 
The  despotism  of  Turkey  is  often  obliged  by  clamor  to 
unsheath  the  sword.  War  might  perhaps  be  delayed, 
but  could  not  be  prevented ;  the  causes  of  it  would  re- 
main, would  be  aggravated,  would  be  multiplied,  and 
would  soon  become  intolerable.  More  captures,  more 
impressments  would  swell  the  list  of  our  wrongs  and  the 
current  of  our  rage.  I  make  no  calculation  of  the  arts 
of  those  whose  employment  it  has  been  on  former  occa- 
sions to  fan  the  fire  ;  I  say  nothing  of  the  foreign  money 


HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES 
and  emissaries  that  might  foment  the  spirit  of  hostility. 

VI FL 

because  the  state  of  things  will  naturally  run  to  violence 
1796.  "  And  is  there  any  thing  in  the  interior  state  of  the 
country  to  encourage  us  to  aggravate  the  dangers  of  a 
war  ?  Would  not  the  shock  of  that  evil  produce  anoth- 
er, arid  shake  down  the  feeble  and  then  unbraced  struct- 
ure of  our  government  ?  The  rejection  of  the  appropri- 
ation proceeds  upon  the  doctrine  of  a  civil  war  of  the 
departments.  Two  branches  of  the  government  have 
ratified  a  treaty,  and  we  are  going  to  set  it  aside.  How 
is  this  disorder  in  the  machine  to  be  rectified  ?  When 
we  talk  of  a  remedy,  is  it  any  other  than  the  formid- 
able one  of  a  revolutionary  interposition  of  the  people  ? 
And  is  this,  in  the  judgment  even  of  my  opposers,  to 
preserve  the  Constitution  and  the  public  order  ?  Is  this 
the  state  of  hazard,  if  not  of  convulsion,  which  they  can 
have  the  courage  to  contemplate  and  to  brave,  or  be- 
yond which  their  penetration  can  reach  and  see  the  is- 
sue ?  They  seem  to  believe,  and  they  act  as  if  they 
believed,  that  our  union,  our  peace,  our  liberty,  are  in- 
vulnerable and  immortal ;  as  if  our  happy  state  was  not 
to  be  disturbed  by  our  dissensions,  and  that  we  are  not 
capable  of  falling  from  it  by  our  unworthiness.  Some 
of  them  have,  no  doubt,  better  nerves  and  better  discern- 
ment than  mine.  They  can  see  the  bright  aspects  and 
happy  consequences  of  all  this  array  of  horrors.  But, 
whatever  they  may  anticipate  as  the  next  measure  of 
prudence  and  safety,  they  have  explained  nothing  to  the 
House.  After  rejecting  the  treaty,  what  is  to  be  the 
next  step  ?  They  must  have  foreseen  what  ought  to  be 
done.  They  have  doubtless  resolved  what  to  propose. 
Why,  then,  are  they  silent  ?  Dare  they  not  avow  their 
plan  of  conduct,  or  do  they  wait  until  our  progress  to- 
ward confusion  shall  guide  Miern  in  forming  it  ? 


DEBATE   ON   JAY'S   TREATY.  6^3 

"  Is  it  possible  for  a  real  American  to  look  at  the  pros-  CHAPTER 

r  .          vui. 
perity  of  this  country  without  some  desire  tor  its  contin-      - 

uance,  without  some  respect  for  the  measures  which  1796. 
many  will  say  produced,  and  all  will  confess  have  pre- 
served it  ?  Will  he  not  feel  some  dread  that  a  change  of 
system  .will  reverse  the  scene  ?  The  well-grounded  fears 
of  our  citizens  in  1794  are  not  forgotten.  Then  they 
deemed  war  nearly  inevitable  ;  and  would  not  this  ad- 
justment have  been  considered  at  that  day  as  a  happy 
escape  from  the  calamity  ?  The  great  interest  and  the 
general  desire  of  our  people  was  to  enjoy  the  advantages 
of  neutrality.  This  instrument,  however  misrepresent- 
ed, affords  America  that  inestimable  security.  The 
causes  of  our  disputes  are  either  cut  up  by  the  roots,  or 
referred  to  a  new  negotiation  after  the  end  of  the  Eu- 
ropean war.  This  was  gaining  every  thing,  because  it 
confirms  our  neutrality,  by  which  our  citizens  are  gain- 
ing every  thing.  This  alone  would  justify  the  engage- 
ments of  the  government.  When  the  fiery  vapors  of 
war  lowered  in  the  skirts  of  our  horizon,  all  our  wishes 
were  concentrated  in  this,  that  we  might  escape  the  des- 
olation of  the  storm.  This  treaty,  like  a  rainbow  on 
the  edge  of  the  cloud,  marks  to  our  eyes  the  space  where 
it  is  raging,  and  affords,  at  the  same  time,  the  sure  prog- 
nostic of  fair  weather.  If  we  reject  it,  the  vivid  colors 
will  grow  pale ;  it  will  become  a  baneful  meteor,  por- 
tending tempest  and  war. 

"  Let  us  not  hesitate,  then,  to  agr^-e  to  the  appropri- 
ation to  carry  it  into  faithful  execution.  Thus  shall  we 
save  the  faith  of  our  nation,  secure  its  peace,  and  diffuse 
a  spirit  and  enterprise  that  will  augment  its  prosperity 
The  progress  of  wealth  and  improvement  is  wonderful, 
and  some  will  think  too  rapid.  The  field  for  exertion  is 
fruitful  and  vast.  The  rewards  of  enterprise  go  to  aug- 


HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES, 

ment  its  power.  Profit  is  every  hour  becoming  capita*. 
'  The  vast  crop  of  our  neutrality  is  all  seed-wheat,  and  is 
1796.  sown  again  to  swell,  almost  beyond  calculation,  the  fu- 
ture harvest  of  prosperity.  In  this  progress,  what  seems 
fiction  is  found  to  fall  short  of  experience. 

"  When  I  come  to  the  moment  of  deciding  the  vote, 
I  start  back  with  dread  from  the  edge  of  the  pit  into 
which  we  are  plunging.  In  my  view,  even  the  minutes 
I  have  spent  in  expostulation  have  their  value,  because 
they  protract  the  crisis,  and  the  short  period  in  which 
alone  we  may  resolve  to  escape  it.  Yet  I  have,  perhaps, 
as  little  personal  interest  in  the  event  as  any  one  here. 
There  is,  I  believe,  no  member  who  will  not  think  his 
chance  to  be  a  witness  of  the  consequences  greater  than 
mine.  If,  however,  the  vote  should  pass  to  reject,  and 
a  spirit  should  rise,  as  it  will,  with  the  public  disorders 
to  make  confusion  worse  confounded,  even  I,  slender  and 
almost  broken  as  my  hold  on  life  is,  may  outlive  the  gov- 
ernment and  Constitution  of  my  country  !" 

Vice-president  Adams,  who  heard  this  speech  from 
the  gallery,  gave  a  graphic  account  of  it  in  a  letter  to 
his  wife.  "  Judge  Iredell  and  I  happened  to  sit  togeth- 
er. Our  feelings  beat  in  unison.  '  My  God !  how 
great  he  is,'  says  Iredell ;  '  how  great  he  has  been !' 
1  Noble  !'  said  I.  After  some  time,  Iredell  breaks  out, 
1  Bless  my  stars.  1  never  heard  any  thing  so  great  since 
I  was  born.'  c  Divine  !'  said  I ;  and  thus  we  went  on 
with  our  interjections,  not  to  say  tears,  to  the  end. 
Tears  enough  were  shed.  Not  a  dry  eye,  I  believe,  in 
the  House,  except  some  of  the  jackasses  who  had  occa- 
sioned the  necessity  of  the  oratory.  These  attempted 
to  laugh,  but  their  visages  grinned  horribly  ghastly 
smiles.'  They  smiled  like  Foulon's  son-in-law  when 
they  made  him  kiss  his  father's  dead  and  bleeding  head 


DEBATE    OJN    JAY'S   TREATY.  6^5 

The  situation  of  the  man  excited  compassion,  and  inter-  CHAPTER 
ested  all  hearts  in  his  favor.      The  ladies  vyished  his  soul  ' 

had  a  better  body."  1796. 

The  question  was  to  have  been  taken  immediately 
after  Ames's  speech,  but,  alarmed  for  the  effect  it  might 
produce,  the  opposition  carried  an  adjournment.  The 
next  day,  three  more  speeches  were  made  for  the  treaty, 
one  by  Dayton,  the  speaker;  but  nobody  attempted  to 
answer  Ames.  The  opposition  had  claimed  a  majority 
of  ten.  In  the  course  of  the  debate,  this  claim  had 
sunk  to  six.  The  vote,  when  it  came  to  be  taken,  April  29. 
stood  forty-nine  to  forty-nine.  The  responsibility  of  a 
decision  was  thus  thrown  on  Muhlenburg,  the  chairman 
of  the  Committee  of  the  Whole.  He  voted  for  the  res- 
olution, excusing  himself  to  his  party  by  suggesting  that 
it  was  yet  to  be  acted  upon,  and  might  be  amended  in 
the  House. 

In  the  House,  Dearborn  proposed  to  amend  by  insert-  April  30 
ing  a  preliminary  paragraph,  declaring  the  treaty  highly 
objectionable.  But  so  loud  was  the  protest  against  this 
maneuver  to  compel  the  friends  of  the  treaty  to  concur 
in  passing  a  censure  on  it,  that  Dearborn  finally  agreed 
to  offer  his  amendment  by  way  of  preamble,  so  as  to  ad- 
mit of  a  divided  vote.  The  word  "  highly"  was  first 
struck  out  of  this  proposed  preamble  by  the  casting  vote 
of  the  speaker.  Parker  of  Virginia,  as  he  was  against 
the  resolution  in  every  shape,  declared  that  he  would 
have  nothing  to  do  with  making  a  preamble  for  it.  He 
voted,  therefore,  against  Dearborn's  motion,  which  was 
lost,  fifty  to  forty-nine.  The  unamended  resolution,  de- 
claring that  it  was  expedient  to  pass  the  laws  necessa- 
ry  for  carrying  the  treaty  into  effect,  was  then*  agreed 
to,  fifty-one  to  forty-eight,  Bailey  of  New  York,  who 
sad  voted  for  the  amendment,  voting  now  for  tho  TIE- 


616  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  amended  resolution.      Only  four  New  England  members 

VTFT 

'  voted  against  it,  Israel  Smith  of  Vermont,  and  Dearborn, 
1796.  Varnum,  and  W.  Lyman  of  Massachusetts.  From  the 
states  south  of  the  Potomac,  there  were  only  four  votes 
in  its  favor,  Hancock  of  Virginia,  Grove  of  North  Caro- 
lina, and  Smith  and  Harper  of  South  Carolina.  The 
New  Jersey  members  all  voted  for  it,  and  from  Mary- 
land there  was  but  one  vote  against  it.  Pennsylvania 
and  New  York  were  for  it,  two  to  one. 

No  one,  perhaps,  was  more  vexed  and  mortified  at 
this  decision  than  Jefferson,  who  has  left  ample  evidence 
in  his  published  letters  of  the  interest  with  which  he 
watched  the  progress  of  the  debate,  and  of  the  vigor  with 
which  he  stimulated  the  opposition.  Yet,  in  two  several 
instances  at  least,  while  a  member  of  Washington's  cab- 
met,  he  had  maintained  the  existence,  in  the  president 
and  Senate,  of  the  treaty-making  power  to  its  full  ex- 
tent. He  had  supported,  in  the  case  of  the  treaty  with 
the  Creeks,  the  right  to  insert  an  article  providing  for  the 
admission  of  M'Gillivray's  goods  free  of  duty,  and  the 
effect  of  such  an  article,  by  its  own  vigor,  to  repeal,  to 
that  extent,  the  revenue  laws  of  the  United  States. 
With  reference  to  the  Algerine  negotiation,  he  had  as- 
sured the  president  that,  if  the  payment  of  a  sum  of 
money  were  stipulated  by  treaty,  the  House  would  be 
bound  to  furnish  it.  But,  as  in  the  matter  of  the  as- 
sumption of  the  state  debts,  which  he  had  first  aided, 
and  had  afterward,  the  popular  current  setting  that  way, 
denounced  as  an  atrocious  piece  of  corruption,  so  he  now 
found  no  difficulty  in  going  all  lengths  with  the  opposi- 
M8Tcb27.  tion.  In  a  letter  to  Madison,  pending  the  discussion,  he 
eulogized  Gallatin's  speech  on  the  resolution  calling  on 
the  president  for  Jay's  correspondence,  "  as  worthy  of 
being  printed  at  the  end  of  the  Federalist,  as  the  onh 


SENTIMENTS  OF  JEFFERSON.         g^7 

rational  commentary  on  the  part  of  the  Constitution  to  CHAPTEB 

which  it  relates."      Indeed,   he    could   not   see   "  much 

harm  in  annihilating  the  whole  treaty-making  power,  ex-  1796. 
cept  as  to  making  peace."  "  If  you  decide  in  favor  of 
your  right  to  refuse  co-operation  in  any  case  of  treaty,  1 
should  wonder  on  what  occasion  it  is  to  be  used,  if  not 
in  one  where  the  rights,  the  interests,  the  honor,  arid 
faith  of  our  nation  are  so  grossly  sacrificed ;  where  a  fac- 
tion has  entered  into  a  conspiracy  with  the  enemies  of 
their  country  to  chain  down  the  Legislature  at  the  feet 
of  both ;  where  the  whole  mass  of  your  constituents  have 
condemned  this  work  in  the  most  unequivocal  manner, 
and  are  looking  to  you  as  their  last  hope  to  save  them 
from  the  effects  of  the  avarice  and  corruption  of  the  first 
agent,  the  revolutionary  machinations  of  others,  and  the 
incomprehensible  acquiescence  of  the  only  honest  man 
who  has  assented  to  it.  I  wish  that  his  honesty  and  his 
political  errors  may  not  furnish  a  second  occasion  to  ex- 
olaim,  <  Curse  ca  his  virtues,  they  have  undone  his 
country  !' ': 

In  the  same  strain  was  the  famous  letter  to  Mazzei, 
written  about  this  time,  and  the  unexpected  publication 
of  which  a  year  afterward  combined  with  other  circum- 
stances to  bring  the  hitherto  friendly  relations  between 
Washington  and  Jefferson  to  a  final  termination.  "  The 
aspect  of  our  politics,"  said  this  famous  letter,  "  has  won-  April  21 
derfully  changed  since  you  left  us.  In  place  of  that  noble 
love  of  liberty  and  republican  government  which  carried 
fts  triumphantly  through  the  war,  an  Anglican,  monarch- 
ical, aristocratic  party  has  sprung  up,  whose  avowed 
object  is  to  draw  over  us  the  substance,  as  they  have  al- 
ready done  the  forms,  of  the  British  government.  The 
main  body  of  our  citizens,  however,  remain  true  to  their 
republican  principles ;  the  whole  landed  interest  is  re- 


518  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  publican,  and  so  is  a  great  mass  of  talents.      Against  u* 

are  the  executive,  the  judiciary,  two  out  of  three  branches 

1796.  of  the  Legislature,  all  the  officers  of  the  government,  all 
who  want  to  be  officers,  all  timid  men  who  prefer  the 
calm  of  despotism  to  the  boisterous  sea  of  liberty.  British 
merchants  and  Americans  trading  on  British  capital, 
speculators  and  holders  in  the  banks  and  public  funds, 
a  contrivance  invented  for  the  purposes  of  corruption, 
and  for  assimilating  us  in  all  things  to  the  rotten  as  well 
as  the  sound  parts  of  the  British  model.  It  would  give 
you  a  fever  were  I  to  name  to  you  the  apostates  who 
have  gone  over  to  these  heresies,  men  who  were  Samsons 
in  the  field  and  Solomons  in  the  council,  but  who  have 
had  their  heads  shorn  by  the  harlot  England.  In  short, 
we  are  likely  to  preserve  the  liberty  we  have  obtained 
only  by  unremitting  labors  and  perils." 

But  while  throwing  out  on  all  sides,  among  his  co(- 
tespondents  and  associates,  these  damaging  insinuation? 
against  Washington — poor  man,  honest  indeed,  but  the 
tool  and  dupe  of  rogues,  and  likely  to  be  the  ruin  of  his 
country  —  Jefferson  cowered  before  the  president's  in- 
fluence and  popularity,  and  still  wished  to  continue  to 
stand  well  with  one,  an  open  breach  with  whom  might 
prove  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  his  political  aspirations. 
"  You  will  have  seen,  by  the  proceedings  of  Congress," 
nnej2  he  wrote  to  Monroe,  "the  truth  of  what  I  always  ob- 
served to  you,  that  one  man  outweighs  them  all  in  in- 
fluence over  the  people,  who  have  supported  his  judg- 
ment against  their  own  and  that  of  their  representatives." 
Manfully  to  encounter  the  personal  opposition  of  one  so 
potential  with  the  people  required  more  courage  than 
Jefferson  possessed ;  at  least,  it  did  not  suit  his  under- 
mining system  of  political  warfare.  A  publication  of 
the  questions  confidentially  submitted  to  the  cabinet 


JEFFERSON   AND   WASHINGTON.  ^  J.  9 

as  to  the  reception  of  Genet,  and  the  binding  effect  of  CHAPTER 

VIII. 

the  French  treaty,  having  appeared  in  the  Aurora,  de- 

signed  to  prejudice  the  president  in  the  minds  of  the  1796. 
partisans  of  France,  and  which  could  only  have  become 
public  by  a  betrayal  of  confidence,  Jefferson  hastened,  in 
a  letter  to  Washington,  to  disclaim,  with  vehement  as-  June  19 
severations,  the  having  communicated  this  paper,  or,  in- 
deed, any  thing  else,  to  any  of  the  public  prints,  all  con- 
nection with  which,  direct  or  indirect,  he  positively  dis- 
avowed. Thence  he  diverged  into  a  virulent  attack  upon 
General  Lee,  as  trying  "  to  sow  tares"  between  him  and 
Washington,  by  representing  him  "  as  still  engaged  in 
the  bustle  of  politics,  and  in  turbulence  and  intrigue 
against  the  government,"  and  especially  by  having  re- 
ported the  tone  of  political  conversation,  by  no  means 
complimentary  to  Washington,  in  which  Jefferson  was 
accustomed  to  indulge  at  his  own  table.  After  a  some- 
what singular  request  in  one  so  abstracted  from  politics, 
for  a  copy  of  a  confidential  cabinet  opinion  given  by  Knox 
and  Hamilton  on  a  point  in  which  they  had  differed  from 
himself — for,  though  he  did  not  know  that  it  would  ever 
be  of  the  least  importance  to  him,  "  yet  one  loves  to  pos- 
sess arms,  though  they  may  never  have  occasion  for 
them" — this  letter  winds  up,  like  most  of  Jefferson's  po- 
litical letters  of  this  period,  with  quite  a  long  disserta- 
tion on  pease,  clover,  and  threshing  machines. 

Washington  replied  that,  as  he  knew  well  whence  July  o 
came  the  paper  published  in  the  Aurora — the  allusion 
probably  was  to  Randolph — Jefferson's  assurances  on 
that  head  were  unnecessary.  '<  As  you  have  mentioned 
the  subject  yourself,  it  would  not  be  frank,  candid,  or 
friendly  to  conceal  that  your  conduct  has  been  represent- 
ed as  derogating  from  that  opinion  I  had  conceived  you 
entertained  of  me ;  that  to  your  particular  friends  and 


520  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

UHAPTER  connections  you  have  described  and  they  have  denounced 

me  as  a  person  under  a  dangerous  influence,  and  that, 

1796.  if  I  would  listen  more  to  some  other  opinions,  all  would 
be  well.  My  answer  invariably  has  been,  that  I  had 
never  discovered  any  thing  in  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son to  raise  suspicions  in  my  mind  of  his  insincerity ; 
that,  if  he  would  retrace  my  public  conduct  while  he 
was  in  the  administration,  abundant  proofs  would  occur 
to  him  that  truth  and  right  decisions  were  the  sole  ob- 
jects of  my  pursuit ;  that  there  were  as  many  instances 
within  his  own  knowledge  of  my  having  decided  against 
as  in  favor  of  the  opinions  of  the  person  alluded  to  [Ham- 
ilton] ;  and,  moreover,  that  I  was  no  believer  in  the  in- 
fallibility of  the  politics  or  measures  of  any  man  living. 
In  short,  that  I  was  no  party  man  myself,  and  that  the 
first  wish  of  my  heart  was,  if  parties  did  exist,  to  recon- 
cile them. 

"  To  this  I  may  add,  and  very  truly,  that  until  with- 
in the  last  year  or  two  I  had  no  conception  that  parties 
would  or  could  go  the  length  I  have  been  witness  to, 
nor  did  I  believe  until  lately  that  it  was  within  the 
bounds  of  probability,  hardly  within  those  of  possibility, 
that,  while  I  was  using  my  utmost  exertions  to  establish 
a  national  character  of  our  own,  independent,  as  far  as 
our  obligations  and  justice  would  permit,  of  every  nation 
on  the  earth,  and  wished,  by  steering  a  steady  course, 
to  preserve  this  country  from  the  horrors  of  a  desolating 
war,  I  should  be  accused  of  being  the  enemy  of  one  na- 
tion and  subject  to  the  influence  of  another  ;  and,  to 
prove  it,  that  every  act  of  my  administration  would  be 
tortured,  and  the  grossest  and  most  insidious  misrepre- 
sentations of  them  be  made,  by  giving  one  side  only  of 
a  subject,  and  that,  too,  in  such  exaggerated  and  inde- 
cent terms  as  could  scarcely  be  applied  to  a  Nero,  a  no- 


JEFFERSON   AND    WASHINGTON.  <3  2  1 

torious  defaulter,  or  even  to  a  common  pickpocket.    But  CHAPTER 

enough  of  this :   I  have  already  gone  further  in  the  ex- 

pression  of  my  feelings  than  I  intended."  Coming  thus  1796 
to  an  abrupt  conclusion,  without  any  reference  to  the 
paper  which  Jefferson  had  asked  for,  Washington  did  not 
withhold  his  customary  expressions  of  regard  and  esteem ; 
but  this  was  the  last  letter,  so  far  as  now  appears,  that 
ever  passed  between  him  and  Jefferson.  They  had,  in- 
deed, reached  a  point  where  their  views  of  the  public 
interest  became  fundamentally  different,  while  their 
ideas  appear  to  have  differed  not  less  fundamentally  as 
to  the  honorable  method  and  lawful  weapons  of  political 
warfare.  Washington  thought  positive  proof  necessary 
to  sustain  political  accusations,  especially  when  they  in- 
volved the  charges  of  corruption  and  treason ;  Jefferson 
was  ever  ready  to  proceed  upon  surmise,  conjecture,  and 
the  promptings  of  suspicion  and  hatred.  Washington 
was  no  believer  in  the  political  infallibility  of  any  man  ; 
while  Jefferson,  in  the  true  spirit  of  party  fanaticism, 
never  hesitated  to  denounce  as  fools,  dupes,  or  knaves  all 
who  presumed  to  differ  from  that  varying  view  of  polit- 
ical affairs  which  the  passions,  the  prejudices,  the  inter- 
ests of  the  moment  led  him  to  take. 

The  great  question  of  the  British  treaty  having  been 
disposed  of,  and  a  peaceful  and  profitable  intercourse  with 
Great  Britain  for  ten  years  longer  thus  secured,  it  only 
remained  for  Congress  to  mature  and  pass  the  bills  un- 
der discussion  during  the  previous  part  of  the  session. 
Meanwhile,  the  necessary  appointments  were  made  for 
carrying  the  treaty  into  effect.  Knox,  and,  on  his  de- 
clining, Howell  of  Rhode  Island,  was  made  commissioner 
for  ascertaining  the  true  St.  Croix  ;  Fitzsimmons  and 
James  Innes,  the  latter  succeeded  presently  by  Sitgreaves, 
were  appointed  commissioners  on  the  subject  of  British 


622  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  debts ;   and  Christopher  Gore,  late  district  attorney  oi 
_____  Massachusetts,  and  William  Pinkney  of  Maryland,  com- 
1796.  missioners  on  the  matter  of  British  spoliations.     Thomas 
Pinckney  had  returned  from  Spain  to  England,  but,  as 
he  desired  a  recall,  Rufus  King  was  appointed  to  succeed 
him.      Humphreys  was  appointed  minister  to  Spain  in 
place  of  Carmichael,  who  was  dead,  Short  being  recalled 
at  his  own  request.      J.  Q,.  Adams  having  been  appoint- 
ed to  succeed  Humphreys  at  Lisbon,  his  place  at  the 
Hague  was  presently  given  to  Murray. 

An  act  regulating  intercourse  with  the  Indians  estab- 
lished a  boundary-line  along  the  whole  extent  of  the 
Western  frontier,  beyond  which  no  white  man  was  to  be 
allowed  to  go  either  for  hunting  or  pasturage,  nor,  south 
of  the  Ohio,  for  any  purpose  whatever,  without  a  pass- 
port from  the  governor  of  some  state,  from  the  officer  of 
the  nearest  post  on  the  frontier,  or  from  some  other  per- 
son authorized  by  the  president  to  grant  passports 
Commencing  on  Lake  Erie,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Cuya- 
hoga,  where  the  town  of  Cleveland  now  stands,  this  line 
followed  the  Indian  boundary  of  Wrayne's  treaty  to  a 
point  on  the  Ohio  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Kentucky 
River.  Thence  it  descended  the  Ohio  (including,  how- 
ever, Clarke's  grant  on  the  north  bank,  opposite  Louis- 
ville) to  the  promontory  formed  by  the  extremity  of  the 
dividing  ridge  between  the  rivers  Cumberland  and  Ten- 
nessee. Turning  there  to  the  southeast,  it  followed  that 
ridge  to  a  point  forty  miles  above  Nashville.  Thence, 
striking  off  northeast  to  the  Cumberland  River,  it  ascend- 
ed that  stream  to  the  Kentucky  crossing,  not  far  from  the 
southwesternmost  point  of  the  State  of  Virginia.  Thence 
in  a  general  southerly,  but  zigzag  direction,  the  Chero- 
kee boundary  was  followed  to  the  head  of  the  main  south 
branch  of  the  Oconee  River,  called  the  Appalachee. 


INTERCOURSE    WITH   THE    INDIANS.  (j  2  3 

Descending  the  Oconee  to  its  junction  with  the  Altama-  CHAPTER 

ha,  from  the  lower  part  of  that  river  the  line  extended, . 

by  the  Creek  boundary,  south  to  the  St.  Mary's.      The  1796 
establishment  of  this  line  secured  to  the  Indians  a  good 
half  of  the  territory  between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Mis- 
sissippi, divided,  however,  into  a  northern  and  a  southern 
portion  by  the  intervention  of  Kentucky. 

The  president  might  remove  by  force  any  persons 
attempting  to  settle  west  of  the  Indian  boundary.  In- 
trusion beyond  it,  for  making  surveys  or  for  any  other 
illegal  purpose,  was  made  punishable  by  fine  and  impris- 
onment, and  by  forfeiture  of  the  title  under  which  the 
surveys  were  made.  In  case  of  robbery  or  any  other 
trespass  on  the  person  or  property  of  Indians,  besides  the 
punishment  of  the  offender,  there  was  to  be  a  pecuniary 
reparation  to  the  sufferer,  to  be  made  by  the  United 
States  if  the  offender  had  no  property.  But  this  pecuni- 
ary reparation  was  to  be  withheld  in  case  of  any  attempt 
by  the  sufferer  or  his  tribe  at  private  revenge  or  satis- 
faction by  force  or  violence.  The  murder  of  Indians  was 
made  punishable  by  death. 

In  case  of  injuries  committed  by  Indians  in  the  terri- 
tories belonging  to  the  whites,  application  for  redress  was 
to  be  made  through  the  Indian  agents,  or  other  persons 
appointed  for  that  purpose,  to  the  president,  who  was  to 
demand,  and,  after  waiting  a  proper  time,  to  take  such 
means  as  he  saw  fit  for  enforcing  reparation.  Indemnity, 
meanwhile,  was  to  be  made  to  the  sufferers  by  the  United 
States  out  of  the  Indian  annuities,  if  it  were  judged  ex- 
pedient, but  only  on  consideration  that  no  attempt  were 
made  to  obtain  private  revenge  or  redress  by  crossing  the 
Indian  boundary.  Any  Indian  caught  within  the  white 
limits  in  the  commission  of  crime  might  be  tried  and 
punished  by  the  local  tribunals.  All  white  violators  of 


£24  HISTORY    OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  the  act  might  be  arrested  in  the  Indian  territory  by  the 
'  military  force  of  the  United  States,  to  be  carried  within 
1796.  ten  days  for  trial  to  the  federal  civil  authorities  in  some 
one  of  the  three  next  adjoining  states  or  districts. 

None  could  trade  with  the  Indians  without  license, 
under  penalty  of  forfeiture  of  their  goods,  fine,  and  im- 
prisonment ;  nor  were  traders  allowed  to  purchase  from 
the  Indians  any  gun,  instrument  of  husbandry,  cooking 
utensils,  or  articles  of  clothing,  except  skins  or  furs,  nor 
horses,  except  by  special  license.  All  conveyances,  sales, 
and  leases  of  Indian  lands,  except  by  public  treaty  with 
the  United  States,  were  declared  void. 

The  president  was  also  authorized  to  furnish  the  In- 
dians with  domestic  animals,  implements  of  husbandry, 
or  other  useful  articles  at  his  discretion,  and  to  appoint 
temporary  agents  to  reside  among  them  for  their  com- 
fort and  instruction,  at  an  expense  not  exceeding  $15,000 
annually.  By  another  act,  the  president's  plan  of  pub- 
lic trading-houses  was  carried  out,  $150,000  being  ap- 
propriated for  that  purpose,  the  goods  to  be  sold  at  such 
prices  as  to  keep  up  the  capital.  As  this  was  an  experi- 
ment, the  appropriation  was  limited  to  two  years ;  but 
the  scheme,  on  trial,  proved  so  beneficial  as  to  be  adopted 
as  a  regular  part  of  the  Indian  system.  Under  the  strict 
enforcement  of  these  judicious  provisions,  the  barbarous 
predatory  war  which  had  prevailed  on  the  frontiers  for 
twenty  years  past  was  finally  brought  to  an  end,  and 
several  of  the  Indian  tribes,  especially  the  Southern  ones, 
began  to  make  a  certain  advance  in  civilization.  This 
act  did  not  extend  to  the  Six  Nations  and  other  smaller 
tribes  living  on  reservations  east  of  the  line  above  de- 
scribed, and  within  the  jurisdiction  of  particular  states. 

The  peace  with  the  Indians  having  opened  the  way 
for  the  sale  and  settlement  of  the  public  lands  north  of 


SURVEY  AND  SALES  OF  PUBLIC  LANDS.    625 

the  Ohio,  an  act  was  passed  for  that  purpose,  based  on  CHAPTER 

the  ordinance  of  the  Continental  Congress.      It  created 

the  office  of  surveyor  general,  and  directed  the  survey  1796 
of  the  lands,  not  surveyed  already  or  reserved  for  mili- 
tary bounties,  into  townships  of  six  miles  square,  by  lines 
crossing  each  other  from  north  to  south  and  east  to  west. 
The  alternate  townships  were  to  be  subdivided  into  thir- 
ty-six sections,  each  a  mile  square,  the  others  into  quar- 
ters. These  alternate  townships  were  to  be  sold  by  sec- 
tions at  public  vendue,  in  the  territory,  at  the  upset 
price  of  two  dollars  an  acre,  reserving  the  four  sections 
in  the  center  of  the  township  for  the  use  of  the  United 
States.  The  quarter  section  townships  were  to  be  sold 
at  the  treasury  at  the  same  upset  price,  payments  to  be 
made  one  half  down  and  the  balance  in  a  year,  with  ten 
per  cent,  discount  for  immediate  payments.  Consider- 
able difference  of  opinion  existed  as  to  the  price  to  be 
asked  for  the  lands,  and  as  to  the  sale  in  large  or  small 
tracts.  A  certain  number  of  the  members  from  the  older 
and  more  settled  states  were  very  doubtful  as  to  the 
policy  of  extraordinary  encouragement  to  emigration, 
tending,  as  it  did,  to  the  increase  of  a  backwoods  popu- 
lation, rude,  unsocial,  and  discontented,  whose  insubor- 
dination, and  violence,  and  threats  of  secession  had  al 
ready  occasioned  so  much  trouble,  expense,  and  anxiety. 
They  were  4  therefore  opposed  to  the  sale  by  sections, 
which  was  urged  by  others,  together  with  a  high  upset 
price,  as  a  means  of  preventing  these  Western  lands  from 
falling  exclusively  into  the  hands  of  speculators,  as  had 
been  to  so  great  a  degree  the  case  with  the  public  lands 
of  the  states.  The  sale  by  sections  was  objected  to  by 
Dearborn,  Nicholas,  and  others,  as  likely  to  retard  the 
disposal  of  the  lands,  for  which  they  expressed  great 
anxiety,  as  a  means  toward  paying  the  public  debt. 
TV.— R  R 


(526  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 


Harper,  on  the  other  hand,  exposed  with  great  ability 
__  _  the  disadvantage  of  a  sale  in  large  tracts,  as  established 
1  796.  by  the  experience  of  the  states,  resulting  in  great  emolu- 
ments to  individuals,  small  produce  to  the  treasury,  and 
scattered,  irregular,  and  desultory  settlements.  The  plan 
finally  adopted  was  a  compromise,  suggested  by  Gallatin, 
between  these  opposite  views.  Another  act  provided  for 
the  survey  of  the  tract  between  the  Scioto  and  the  Mus- 
kingum,  reserved  for  the  location  of  military  land  war- 
rants, in  which  an  extensive  speculation  had  already 
commenced. 

The  prospect  had  been  held  out  that  the  public  build- 
ings at  the  new  federal  city  on  the  Potomac  would  be 
erected  without  any  expense  to  the  United  States.  The 
donations  for  this  purpose,  of  $120,000  by  Virginia, 
$72,000  by  Maryland,  and  of  half  the  lots  in  the  new 
city  transferred  to  the  United  States  by  the  owners  of 
the  land,  in  addition  to  the  necessary  spaces  for  streets, 
squares,  and  public  buildings,  have  already  been  men- 
tioned. It  appeared  from  the  report  of  the  commission- 
ers for  the  erection  of  the  public  buildings  that  six  thou- 
sand of  these  lots  had  been  sold  to  a  company  for  the 
sum  of  $480,000,  payable  in  seven  years,  the  company 
contracting  to  build,  prior  to  1800,  a  hundred  and  fifty 
convenient  brick  houses,  and  not  to  part  with  any  of  their 
lots  except  on  condition  that  one  brick  house  should  be 
erected  for  every  three  lots  sold.  Other  lots  disposed  of 
by  the  commissioners  had  produced  the  sum  of  $95,652, 
making,  with  the  donations  of  Maryland  and  Virginia, 
an  amount  of  $768,000  ;  but  a  part  of  the  purchase 
money  of  the  lots  was  not  yet  payable.  There  still  re- 
mained  in  the  hands  of  the  commissioners  four  thousand 
seven  hundred  lots,  valued  at  $1,300,000.  The  sums 
received  had  been  applied  toward  laying  a  foundation  foi 


FEDERAL   CITY.     IMPRESSMENT.  627 

the  Capitol,  and  in  commencing  the  erection  of  a  house  CHAPTER 

lor  the  president.      To  enable  them  to  go  on,  so  as  to  be 

ready  for  the  reception  of  the  government  in  the  year  1796. 
1800,  the  commissioners  had  asked  for  power  to  raise  on 
mortgage  of  the  unsold  lots  a  loan,  to  be  guaranteed  by 
the  United  States,  to  the  amount  of  $300,000.  That 
guarantee  was  accordingly  given  by  an  act  passed  for 
the  purpose  ;  but  the  speculation  in  the  new  city,  push- 
ed at  first  with  great  ardor,  had  already  received  a 
check.  Great  difficulty  was  experienced  in  raising  the 
loan,  owing  principally  to  the  pressure  in  the  money 
market  occasioned  by  the  extent  to  which  speculation 
of  all  kinds  had  been  carried ;  nor  could  more  than 
$200.000  be  obtained,  and  that  of  the  State  of  Mary- 
land, in  United  States  six  per  cent,  stock,  then  consid- 
erably below  par. 

The  subject  of  the  impressment  of  American  seamen 
had  been  early  brought  before  the  House  in  a  speech  by 
Edward  Livingston,  in  which  he  assailed  Jay  with  great 
vehemence  because  he  had  not  provided  for  this  matter 
in  the  treaty.  A  committee  had  been  raised  to  take 
the  subject  into  consideration,  and  finally  an  act  was 
passed  authorizing  the  appointment  of  two  or  more 
agents,  one  to  reside  in  Great  Britain,  the  others  at  such 
points  as  the  president  might  designate,  to  investigate 
and  to  report  to  the  State  Department  an  account  of  ail 
impressments,  with  authority  also  to  seek  the  relief  of 
the  sufferers,  for  which  purpose  $15,000  were  appropri- 
ated. Collectors  were  required  to  grant  certificates  of 
citizenship  to  all  American  seamen ;  and  all  captains 
whose  men  were  impressed  were  required  to  make  dupli- 
cate protests  stating  the  fact,  one  to  be  sent  to  the  near- 
est American  consul,  and  the  other,  on  the  return  of  the 
vessel,  to  the  Department  of  State ;  the  master  also,  be- 


628  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  fore  entering  his  vessel,  to  render  on  oath  an  account  ot 
vnr. 

nil  seamen  impressed  from  him  during  the  voyage. 

1796.  Livingston  also  brought  up  the  subject  of  the  amelio- 
ration  of  the  penal  laws  of  the  United  States,  but  no 
action  was  had  upon  it.  An  act,  however,  was  passed 
for  the  discharge,  on  taking  the  poor  debtor's  oath,  of 
prisoners  held  for  debt  on  civil  process  from  the  United 
States  courts. 

In  consequence  of  the  peace  with  the  Indians,  the 
military  establishment  underwent  some  reduction.  It 
was  henceforth  to  consist  of  the  corps  of  artillerists  and 
engineers  as  already  organized,  two  companies  of  light 
dragoons,  and  four  regiments  of  infantry,  of  about  450 
men  each,  making  a  total  force  of  2800  men,  to  be  com- 
manded by  a  major  general  and  a  brigadier  general. 

A  good  deal  of  delay  had  taken  place  in  obtaining 
timber  and  commencing  the  frigates  undei  the  act  of 
1794.  Three,  however,  had  been  begun,  and  these,  not- 
withstanding the  peace  with  Algiers,  no  treaties  having 
yet  been  formed  with  Tunis  and  Tripoli,  it  was  resolv- 
ed to  finish.  The  commercial  representatives  strongly 
urged,  also,  that  a  nation  possessing  so  large  a  commer- 
cial marine,  and  whose  coasts  and  harbors  were  liable  to 
perpetual  visits  and  annoyances  from  the  belligerent 
cruisers,  should  not  be  entirely  without  ships  of  war. 
The  finishing  of  these  frigates  encountered  a  most  vehe- 
ment resistance  from  most  of  the  members  of  the  opposi- 
tion. Nicholas  wished  them  to  rot  on  the  stocks,  as  an 
instructive  monument  of  national  folly.  Christie,  of 
Maryland,  did  not  care  if  they  were  reduced  to  ashes. 
Giles  always  had  opposed  a  navy,  and  always  should 
oppose  it,  in  every  shape.  But  upon  this  point  Smith 
of  Baltimore,  Parker  of  Norfolk,  Swanwick  of  Phila- 
delphia, and  a  few  others,  voted  with  the  Federalists. 


NAVY.   INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS.      (529 

The  three  frigates,  built  respectively  at  Boston,  Phila-  CHAPTER 
delphia,  and  Baltimore,  rudiments  of  the  existing  navy,  


all  greatly  distinguished  in  our  naval  annals,  and  all  still  1796 
afloat  (1853),  received  the  names  of  the  Constitution, 
the  United  States,  and  the  Constellation. 

By  the  original  act  regulating  the  pay  of  members  of 
Congress,  the  senators,  after  the  termination  of  the  pres- 
ent session,  nrere  to  be  entitled  to  seven  dollars  per  day, 
while  the  pay  of  the  representatives  remained  fixed  at 
six  dollars.  The  origin  of  this  provision  has  been  already 
mentioned,  but  the  representatives  were  by  no  means 
disposed  to  submit  to  it.  A  new  bill  brought  into  the 
House,  while  it  provided  for  the  equal  payment  of  both 
branches,  proposed  to  substitute  for  a  daily  allowance  an 
annual  stipend.  Such  a  provision,  it  was  said,  would 
tend  to  shorten  the  sessions.  But  this  idea  of  shorten- 
ing the  sessions  appeared  very  alarming  to  Giles,  Madi- 
son, and  others,  as  tending  to  increase  the  power  and 
importance  of  the  executive.  Before  any  attempt  had 
been  made  to  fill  the  blank,  the  annual  stipend  was 
struck  out,  and  the  old  rate  of  payment  of  six  dollars 
per  day  was  finally  continued  to  the  members  of  both 
houses. 

A  resolution  offered  by  Madison  for  an  inspection  and 
survey  of  the  great  post-road  from  Maine  to  Georgia 
may  be  considered  the  first  step  taken  in  Congress  to- 
ward a  system  of  internal  improvements  at  the  federal 
expense.  It  was  suggested  that  the  inquiry  might  be 
beneficially  extended  to  all  parts  of  the  Union,  and  that 
the  expense  of  it  ought  to  be  a  charge,  not  on  the  post- 
office,  but  on  the  treasury.  A  committee  was  appointed 
to  bring  in  a  bill ;  but  some  jealousy  on  the  part  of  the 
Northern  and  Eastern  members  that  this  was  a  scheme 
to  obtain  roads  for  the  Southern  States  and  the  new  set- 


(530  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  tlements  at  the  expense  of  the  Union  seems  to  have  pro- 

_       ' vented  any  action  on  it.      Jefferson,  in  a  private  letter 

1796.  to  Madison,  strongly  questioned  the  constitutional  power 
of  Congress  in  the  matter.  However  the  exigencies  of 
party  might  have  modified  Madison's  conduct,  and  even 
his  expressed  opinions,  his  ideas  of  constitutional  inter- 
pretation and  of  the  powers  of  the  general  government — 
belonging,  as  he  did  in  that  respect,  to  the  Federal  school 
— were  on  several  important  points  fundamentally  dif 
ferent  from  those  of  Jefferson. 

The  appropriations  for  the  service  of  the  current  year, 
with  the  annual  provision  for  the  public  debt,  amounted 
to  about  $6,600,000,  besides  some  unexpended  appro- 
priations of  former  years.  The  produce  of  the  revenue 
was  estimated  at  $6,300,000  ;  but  it  was  necessary  to 
provide  also  for  an  installment  of  the  Dutch  debt,  amount- 
ing to  $414,100,  and  for  at  least  $900,000  of  the  tem- 
porary loans.  There  was  due  to  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  six  millions  of  dollars,  being  the  entire  amount 
of  the  temporary  debt,  except  $200,000  due  to  the  Bank 
of  New  York.  This  debt  had  grown  out  of  the  sub- 
scription to  the  bank  stock,  the  extraordinary  expenses 
of  the  Indian  war,  the  whisky  insurrection,  the  Algerine 
treaty,  and  the  advance  by  the  bank  the  year  before  of 
$660,000  toward  an  installment  of  the  French  debt.  A 
part  of  this  amount  was  payable  by  installments  ex- 
tending through  several  years ;  but  the  larger  part  had 
been  obtained  on  short  loans,  renewed  from  time  to  time, 
and  not  less  than  $4,400,000  was  demandable  within  the 
current  year.  The  bank  pressed  very  earnestly  for  pay- 
ment, and  finally  an  act  was  passed,  not,  however,  with- 
out a  vigorous  opposition,  by  which  the  Commissioners 
of  the  Sinking  Fund  were  authorized,  toward  discharging 
these  liabilities  and  meeting  the  deficiencies  of  the  cur 


STATE    OF   TENNESSEE.  631 

renc  year,  to  raise  a  new  loan  of  five  millions  of  dollars  CHAPTEP 

J                                                                                                VIIL 
as  a  permanent  addition  to  the  funded  debt.      The  at- 

tempt,  however,  to  raise  this  loan  at  par  proved  a  failure  ;  1796. 
and,  instead  of  selling  the  stock  at  a  discount,  which,  as  to 
a  part  of  it,  they  were  authorized  to  do,  the  commission- 
ers preferred  to  avail  themselves  of  another  alternative 
in  the  bill,  by  the  sale  of  a  part  of  the  bank  stock  to  the 
amount  of  $1,000,000,  the  debt  to  the  bank  undergoing, 
as  to  the  larger  part  of  it,  a  further  renewal.  The  ne- 
cessity of  some  further  addition  to  the  revenue,  as  evinced 
by  the  accumulated  deficiencies,  was  admitted  by  the 
Committee  of  Ways  and  Means ;  but  definitive  action 
was  postponed  till  the  next  session,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  being  directed  to  prepare  meanwhile  a  report 
an  the  subject. 

Under  the  terms  of  the  act  constituting  the  Territory 
south  of  the  Ohio,  the  inhabitants  claimed  the  right, 
whenever  they  should  reach  the  number  of  sixty  thou- 
sand, to  form  a  state  government,  and  to  be  admitted 
into  the  Union.  A  constant  tide  of  immigration,  prin- 
cipally from  North  Carolina,  had  set,  of  late,  into  that 
territory.  The  first  newspaper  had  been  established  at 
Knoxville  in  1793.  According  to  a  census  taken  in 
the  autumn  of  1795,  the  population  amounted  to  67,000 
freemen  and  10,000  slaves  ;  and,  as  soon  as  this  number 
was  ascertained,  a  Convention  had  been  held,  and  a  Con- 
stitution adopted  for  the  State  of  TENNESSEE. 

By  the  provisions  of  this  Constitution,  the  right  of  Jan.  11 
suffrage  was  given  to  every  freeman  a  resident  in  any 
county  for  six  months  ;  all  elections  to  be  by  ballot. 
The  representatives,  never  more  than  forty  nor  less  than 
twenty-two,  were  to  be  apportioned  among  the  counties 
in  the  ratio  of  taxable  inhabitants,  to  be  ascertained  ev- 
ery seven  years.  The  senators,  not  to  exceed  one  third 


(532  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

CHAPTER  the  number  of  the  representatives,  were  to  be  apportioned 
.  ^mong  Senate  districts  in  the  same  ratio  ;  these  districts 

1796.  to  be  so  arranged  as  not  to  divide  any  county,  nor  to 
unite  counties  not  adjoining,  nor  to  give  to  any  district 
more  than  three  senators.  This  arrangement,  being  a 
departure  from  the  North  Carolina  model  of  one  senator 
and  two  representatives  for  each  county,  was  copied  from 
the  Constitution  of  Pennsylvania.  The  qualification  to 
sit  in  the  Assembly  was  three  years'  residence  and  the 
possession  of  two  hundred  acres  of  land  ;  but  no  minister 
of  the  Gospel  of  any  denomination,  no  person  holding  of- 
fice under  the  United  States,  and  no  person  intrusted 
with  public  money  of  the  state  whose  accounts  were  un- 
settled, could  sit  in  either  house.  The  general  appoint- 
ing power  to  all  offices  was  vested  in  the  two  houses  ; 
but  they  were  forbidden  to  appoint  their  own  members 
except  as  justices  of  the  peace. 

The  governor,  who  must  be  possessed  of  not  less  than 
five  hundred  acres  of  land,  was  to  be  elected  by  the  peo- 
ple, to  hold  office  for  two  years.  He  had  the  pardoning 
power,  and  the  right  to  make  temporary  appointments 
during  the  recess  of  the  Legislature. 

The  regulation  of  the  judiciary  was  intrusted  to  the 
Legislature,  the  judges,  however,  to  be  appointed  for 
good  behavior.  They  were  forbidden  to  charge  juries  as 
to  matters  of  fact,  but  might  direct  them  as  to  the  law, 
a  rule  borrowed  from  the  practice  of  Maryland.  No  new 
county  could  be  laid  oft'  to  contain  less  than  six  hundred 
and  twenty-five  square  miles.  Knoxville  was  to  remain 
the  seat  of  government  till  1802.  The  code  of  North 
Carolina,  recognized  by  the  Territorial  Legislature  as  in 
force,  was  adopted  also  by  the  Constitution,  thus  tacitly 
legalizing  the  system  of  slavery,  to  which,  in  the  Con 
stitution,  no  direct  allusion  was  made. 


STATE    OF   TENNESSEE  (}  3  ;j 

The  Legislature  was  forbidden  to  interfere  with  the  CHAPTER 

rights  of  conscience  by  compelling  any  one   to  attend 

upon,  or  to  assist  in  erecting  or  supporting  any  place  of  1796. 
worship  ;  or  by  giving  any  legal  preference  to  any  mode 
of  worship  or  religious  establishment.  The  bill  of  rights 
provided  that  no  religious  test  should  ever  be  required 
as  a  qualification  for  any  public  office  or  trust.  Yet,  by 
the  body  of  the  Constitution,  no  person  who  denied  the 
being  of  a  God,  or  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punish- 
ments, could  be  elected  to  any  office. 

Sevier,  the  hero  of  the  extinct  State  of  Frankland,  Aprn  * 
had  been  elected  governor,  and  a  Legislature  chosen  un- 
der this  new  state  Constitution  had  met  at  Knoxville. 
Blount,  the  late  territorial  governor,  and  William  Cocke, 
were  chosen  United  States  senators  ;  and  a  transcript  of 
the  census,  with  the  new  state  Constitution,  was  trans- 
mitted to  the  president,  by  whom  they  were  laid  before 
Congress. 

The  committee  of  the  House  to  whom  this  message 
was  referred  reported  in  favor  of  admitting  the  new  state ;  May  5. 
but  this  report  met  with  some  opposition.  The  Feder- 
alists were  but  little  disposed,  just  at  the  approach  of  a 
presidential  election,  likely  to  prove  a  close  test  of  the 
strength  of  parties,  to  increase  the  force  of  the  opposition 
by  admitting  a  new  backwoods  state.  It  was  objected 
that  the  census  ought  to  have  been  taken,  and  that  the 
proceedings  for  the  erection  of  the  new  state  should  have 
been  had  under  the  authority  of  Congress.  Some  faults 
were  also  found  with  the  Constitution ;  but  the  report 
of  the  committee  was  finally  adopted,  forty -two  to  thirty, 
and  a  bill  was  ordered  to  be  brought  in  for  admitting 
the  new  state. 

A  different  view  prevailed  in  the  other  house.      A 
committee  reported,  and  the  Senate  agreed,  that  it  rest-  May  t« 


634  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  ed  with  Congress  to  decide,  in  the  first  place,  how  many 
states,  whethen  one  or  more,  should  be  formed  out  of 
1796.  the  Territory,  and  that,  although  the  entire  territory 
might  have  a  population  of  60,000,  no  right  of  admis- 
sion into  the  Union  accrued  until  it  had  first  been  de- 
cided by  Congress  to  embrace  the  whole  in  a  single  state. 
Since  such  seemed  to  be  the  disposition  of  the  inhabit- 
ants, it  was  proposed,  first,  to  ascertain  their  numbers 
by  authority  of  Congress,  and  a  bill  for  that  purpose  was 
brought  in  and  passed.  This  method  of  procedure  would 
have  delayed  the  admission  till  the  next  session  of  Con- 
gress, if  not,  indeed,  for  a  longer  period.  Meanwhile, 
the  senators  elect  from  the  new  state  presented  their  ere 
dentials  and  claimed  their  seats.  They  were  admitted 
to  the  floor,  but  only  as  "  spectators,"  till  the  matter 
should  be  decided.  The  Senate  bill  was  so  amended  in 
the  House  as  to  recognize  and  admit  the  new  state  at 
once  ;  and  in  that  shape,  after  a  conference  between  the 
'une  1.  two  houses,  it  finally  became  a  law  on  the  last  day  of 
the  session.  The  senators  elect  from  the  new  state  there- 
upon again  claimed  their  seats  ;  but  this  was  refused 
by  the  Senate  on  the  ground  that  their  credentials  were 
of  a  date  prior  to  the  act  admitting  the  state  into  the 
Union.  The  new  state,  like  the  territory  from  which 
it  had  been  formed,  consisted  of  two  detached  settlements, 
the  one  on  the  head  waters  of  the  Tennessee,  in  the  val- 
leys of  the  Allegany  chain,  the  other  in  the  district  about 
Nashville,  the  two  together  embracing  hardly  a  fifth  part 
of  the  area  within  the  nominal  boundaries  of  the  state, 
and  entirely  separated  from  each  other  by  intervening 
tracts  of  Indian  territory. 

It  was  not  alone  on  the  southwestern  frontier  that 
population  and  settlement  were  making  rapid  progress. 
The  same  was  the  case  in  Vermont,  the  upper  part  of 


NEW   ENGLAND.  635 

New  Hampshire,  and  the  District  of  Maine.      The  peo-  CHAPTEK 

pie  of  that  district  still  entertained  the  project  of  being 

constituted  as  a  separate  state,  a  privilege  to  which  they  1796 
considered  themselves  as  much  entitled,  both  by  popula- 
tion and  resources,  as  either  Kentucky  or  Tennessee. 
But  Massachusetts,  and  an  influential  body  of  the  inhab- 
itants themselves,  were  as  yet  unwilling,  and  the  sepa- 
ration was  delayed  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  longer.  A 
college  had  recently  been  established  in  Maine,  at  Bruns-  1794 
wick,  on  the  Lower  Androscoggin,  named  Bowdoin,  after 
the  late  distinguished  patriot  of  that  name,  who  had  con- 
tributed to  endow  it.  The  school  in  Western  Massa- 
chusetts, endowed  by  Colonel  Williams,  who  had  fallen 
during  the  French  war  in  the  battle  of  Lake  George, 
had  also  been  erected  into  a  college,  and  named  after  its 
benefactor. 

The  building  of  expensive  bridges  across  the  Merri- 
mac  and  Connecticut,  attempts  to  render  those  rivers 
boatable  by  canals  and  locks  around  the  falls  by  which 
they  were  impeded,  and  a  canal  undertaken  on  a  larger 
scale  to  connect  the  Merrimac  with  Boston  harbor,  the 
first  enterprise  of  the  sort  in  America,  evinced  the  in- 
crease of  wealth  consequent  on  the  rapid  extension  of 
foreign  commerce — a  result  still  more  apparent  in  the 
flourishing  growth  of  the  New  England  sea-ports.  This 
\ncreasing  prosperity  had  given  rise  to  some  remarkable 
changes  of  political  sentiment.  The  western  counties 
of  Massachusetts,  some  twelve  years  before  the  seat  of 
Shays's  rebellion,  and  at  first  strongly  anti-Federal,  now 
zealously  supported  the  federal  government,  and  at  the 
late  election  for  governor  had  given  a  decided  majority 
for  Sumner,  the  Federal  candidate,  who,  however,  had 
been  again  beaten  by  Samuel  Adams.  The  strength  of 
the  opposition,  calling  themselves  Republicans,  was  in 


63fi  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Boston  and  its  vicinity,  and  in  the  District  of  Maine,  the 

VIII. 

'  prejudices  of  the  sea-faring  people  being  constantly  in- 
]796.  flamed,  and  the  recollections  of  the  past  revived  by  col- 
lisions with  British  cruisers.  Convinced  by  experiment 
of  the  benefits  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  and  sharing 
largely  in  the  rich  harvest  of  commerce,  Rhode  Island 
had  become  decidedly  Federal.  Her  state  creditors,  for- 
merly paid  off  in  depreciated  paper  money,  had  obtained, 
under  the  assumption  of  the  state  debts,  the  balance  of 
their  dues.  New  Hampshire,  notwithstanding  the  in- 
fluence of  Langdon,  who  threw  all  his  weight  into  the 
opposite  scale,  was  also  decidedly  Federal.  Vermont,  in 
which  recent  settlers  greatly  predominated,  inclined  to 
the  opposition ;  but  the  Federalists  were  gaining  strength 
there.  Connecticut,  distinguished  for  the  general  intel- 
ligence as  well  as  for  the  republican  equality  of  her  citi- 
zens, was  a  very  warm  and  steady  supporter  of  Wash- 
ington's  administration.  The  tract  on  Lake  Erie,  east 
of  Pennsylvania,  reserved  by  Connecticut  out  of  her  ces- 
sion of  Western  claims,  had  been  lately  sold  to  a  com- 
pany of  speculators  for  the  sum  of  $1,200,000,  the 
state  giving  a  quit-claim  deed,  including  her  right  of 
jurisdiction  as  well  as  her  title  to  the  lands ;  of  which, 
however,  half  a  million  of  acres  had  been  previously 
granted  to  the  sufferers  by  British  depredations  during 
the  Revolutionary  war.  The  Indian  title  to  a  part  of  the 
reservation  being  extinguished  by  Wayne's  treaty,  sur- 
veys had  been  commenced,  and  preparations  were  mak- 
ing by  the  new  company  for  sale  and  settlement.  The 
money  received  by  the  state,  after  some  dispute  as  to  its 
appropriation,  had  been  constituted  into  a  fund  toward 
the  support  of  common  schools.  It  had  been  proposed 
to  apply  a  part  of  it  toward  the  support  of  the  ministers, 
but  that  was  given  up.  These  ministers,  an  educated 


CONNECTICUT   AND   NEW   YORK.  (537 

and  able  body  of  men,  placed  in  a  state  of  independence  CHAPTES 

by  settlements  for  life,  and  enjoying  the  respect  and  af- 

fection  of  the  great  body  of  their  parishioners,  possessed,  1790 
as  well  in  this  state  as  in  Massachusetts  and  New  Hamp- 
shire, a  powerful  political  influence,  thrown,  with  very 
rare  exceptions,  into  the  Federal  scale.  Exceeding  all 
her  sister  states  in  density  of  population,  but  as  yet  with- 
out manufactures,  except  in  a  household  way,  and  from 
want  of  good  harbors  not  greatly  interested  in  commerce, 
Connecticut  furnished  a  large  body  of  emigrants,  who,  as 
lawyers,  physicians,  teachers,  editors,  and  traders,  found 
their  way  into  every  state  in  the  Union.  The  stream 
of  the  agricultural  emigration,  hitherto  directed  toward 
Vermont,  had  begun  to  pour  itself  into  the  fertile  region 
of  Western  New  York.  The  withdrawal  of  the  British 
garrisons  from  the  posts  on  the  lakes  removed  some  im- 
pediments which  had  hitherto  existed.  Indeed,  hither- 
to the  British  commander  at  Niagara  had  taken  it  upon 
himself  absolutely  to  prohibit  any  settlements  on  the 
south  shore  of  Lake  Ontario.  The  Oneidas  and  Onon- 
dagas  of  that  region  had  recently  made  an  additional 
cession,  including  the  famous  salt  springs  near  Lake 
Onondaga,  which  thus  passed  into  possession  of  the  state. 
By  a  treaty  with  the  Cagnawagas,  or  French  Mohawks, 
settled  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  near  the  northern  boundary 
of  New  York,  and  lately  associated  with  some  other 
neighboring  tribes,  as  the  Seven  Nations  of  Canada,  the 
Indian  title  had  been  extinguished  to  the  whole  region 
between  Lake  Champlain  and  the  St.  Lawrence.  This 
barren  district,  as  well  as  the  fertile  tracts  south  of  On- 
tario, were  already  in  the  hands  of  speculators,  by  some 
of  whom  fortunes  were  made,  though  this  was  very  far 
from  being  the  case  with  all  of  the  original  purchasers. 
The  new  population  thus  poured  into  New  York  began 


638  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  to  make  itself  felt  in  the  politics  of  that  state,  and  Feder 

VIII. 

.  alism,  supported  by  the  Rensselaers,  by  Jay,  and  by  Ham- 

1796.  ilton,  gained  somewhat  over  the  influence  of  Clinton,  the 
Livingstons,  and  Burr.  In  1790,  a  proposition  in  the 
Assembly  of  New  York  to  establish  public  schools  had 
been  hardly  noticed  ;  in  1795,  an  appropriation  was  made 
for  this  purpose  of  $50,000  for  each  of  the  following  five 
years,  an  additional  amount  of  half  that  sum  to  be  raised 
by  the  townships.  Such  was  the  commencement  of  the 
New  York  Common  School  system,  though  many  years 
elapsed  before  it  attained  its  present  extension.  A  new 
college,  under  the  influence  of  Presbyterians  and  other 
anti-Episcopalians,  called  Union,  from  the  co-operation 
of  several  sects  in  its  establishment,  had  lately  been  in- 
stituted at  Schenectady. 

A  new  attempt  had  been  made  at  the  recent  session 
of  the  New  York  Legislature  to  abolish  slavery,  a  meas- 
ure which  had  in  its  favor  the  warmest  wishes  of  Gov- 
ernor Jay.  But  on  the  question  of  compensation,  which 
the  slave-holders  insisted  upon,  the  bill  failed  in  the 
House  by  a  vote  of  thirty -two  to  thirty. 

A  curious  dispute  had  arisen  as  to  the  appointing 
power  under  the  Constitution  of  New  York.  That  pow- 
er was  vested  in  the  governor  and  a  council  of  four 
members,  one  chosen  from  each  of  the  four  Senate  dis- 
tricts. Governor  Clinton  had  always  claimed  the  right 
of  nomination;  but  a  Federal  majority  in  the  Council  of 
Appointment  had  insisted  upon  making  Egbert  Benson  a 
judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  notwithstanding  Clinton's 
refusal  to  nominate  him  ;  and  this  controversy  had  beer 
kept  up  till  the  end  of  Clinton's  administration.  Jay 
asked  the  Legislature  to  pass  a  declaratory  law  on  the 
subject,  though  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution  would 
seem  to  have  been  the  true  method.  But  neither  party 


PENNSYLVANIA.  639 

was  desirous  to  meddle  with  the  matter,  since  both  had  CHAPTEI? 

VIII. 

formerly  taken  ground  in  conflict  with  their  present  in-  _ 
terest,  and  thus  the  question  still  remained  open  for  fu-  1796. 
ture  contentions.      It  was  settled,  by  an  amendment  of 
the  Constitution,  five  years  after,  in  favor  of  the  coun- 
cil, the  governor  being  thus  reduced  to  be  a  mere  mem- 
ber, with  no  more  weight  than  any  of  the  others. 

New  York  followed  the  example  of  Pennsylvania  in 
establishing  a  penitentiary  and  in  meliorating  her  penal 
code ;  but  an  attempt  in  Pennsylvania  to  imitate  the  ap- 
propriation made  by  New  York  for  the  support  of  public 
schools  was  opposed  and  defeated  by  the  Quakers  and 
the  members  of  some  other  religious  sects,  on  the  ground 
that  as  they  already  supported  schools  of  their  own, 
they  ought  not  to  be  taxed  for  the  benefit  of  other  peo- 
ple. The  religious  uniformity  prevailing  in  New  En- 
gland made  a  system  of  public  schools  practicable  there 
— such  was  the  argument — but  no  such  system  would 
be  possible  in  Pennsylvania,  except  upon  the  principle 
of  no  religious  instruction,  and  that  principle,  it  was 
said,  was  no  better  than  heathenism.  By  such  argu- 
ments the  bill  was  defeated  by  the  very  persons  who 
might  have  been  expected  to  support  it ;  and,  very  great- 
ly to  the  social  and  political  damage  of  Pennsylvania, 
the  provision  in  the  state  Constitution  requiring  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  system  of  education  by  which  the  poor 
might  be  taught  gratis  remained  for  a  long  time  unex- 
ecuted. 

From  being  a  decidedly  Federal  state,  the  politics  of 
Pennsylvania  had  become  very  doubtful.  The  constant 
increase  of  the  backwoods  population,  consisting,  in  a 
considerable  proportion,  of  emigrants  from  Europe,  chief- 
ly from  Ireland,  bringing  with  them  a  bitter  hatred  of 
England  and  a  high  enthusiasm  for  French  politics,  ccn- 


HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

HHAPTER  tributed  more  and  more  to  separate  Pennsylvania  frorc 

vu  i. 
her  old  political  sympathies  with  New  England,  and  to 

1796  subject  her  to  the  controlling  influence  of  Virginia.  An- 
tipathy to  New  England  was  also  nourished  by  the  Wy- 
oming controversy,  still  kept  up.  The  repeal  of  the  law 
confirming  the  Connecticut  titles  prior  to  the  Trenton 
decree  had  left  the  whole  body  of  the  New  England  set- 
tlers in  the  Wyoming  district  exposed  to  ejectment  suits. 
This  process  being  found  very  slow  and  tedious,  a  bill 
was  presently  introduced  in  the  Pennsylvania  Legisla- 
ture for  driving  out  these  intruders  by  an  armed  force, 
and  burning  their  houses.  This  bill  failed  to  pass ;  but 
the  bitter  antipathy  of  which  it  was  the  index  tended  to 
weaken  the  Federal  party. 

An  attempt  had  been  made,  while  the  Indian  war  was 
still  pending,  to  establish  a  settlement,  under  the  patron- 
age of  the  state,  on  that  triangular  tract,  bordering  on 
Lake  Erie,  which  Pennsylvania  had  purchased  of  the 
general  government.  This  attempted  settlement  had 
occasioned  no  little  excitement  among  the  Seneca  tribe 
of  the  Six  Nations,  who  claimed  some  title  to  the  land; 
and,  on  the  representations  of  the  president,  it  had,  in  con- 
sequence, been  temporarily  suspended.  It  was  now  re- 
newed, and  the  town  of  Presque  Isle,  since  called  Erie, 
was  founded. 

Simultaneously  with  this  first  settlement  on  the  shores 
of  Lake  Erie,  to  which  were  presently  added  those  soon 
after  undertaken  by  the  speculators  who  had  purchased 
the  Connecticut  reserve,  large  emigrations  also  began  to 
be  made  to  the  more  southern  settlements  on  the  Mus- 
kingum  and  the  Miami,  the  increase  of  which  had  hith- 
erto been  impeded  by  the  Indian  hostilities. 

Whatever  might  be  the  case  with  Pennsylvania,  the 
little  State  of  Delaware,  which  had  set  the  exarnole  of 


STATES  SOUTH  OF  THE  POTOMAC.      <>4  > 

ratifying  the  Federal  Constitution,  remained  firmly  at-  CHASTEB 
tached  to  the  Federal  party.  New  Jersey  also  still  con-  ^ 
tinued  a  Federal  state.  Maryland  inclined  decidedly 
the  same  way,  thus  exhibiting  an  opposition  to  Virginia 
traceable  through  almost  the  whole  course  of  her  history. 
South  of  the  Potomac  the  Federal  party  possessed  hard- 
ly any  political  strength.  While  Washington  leaned 
with  confidence  on  New  England,  as  he  had  done  during 
the  war  of  the  Revolution,  and  received  from  that  sec- 
tion of  the  Union  a  steady  and  enthusiastic  support,  very 
few  measures  indeed  of  his  administration  had  found 
favor  in  his  native  state.  Yet  even  there  his  personal 
weight  and  popularity  were  so  formidable,  that  the  po- 
litical leaders  found  it  convenient  to  draw  a  distinction 
not  very  well  suited  to  the  nature  of  our  government, 
and  which  Washington  himself  expressly  repudiated,  be- 
tween the  personal  views  of  the  president  and  the  policy 
and  aims  of  the  administration.  North  Carolina  hither- 
to had  passively  followed  the  lead  of  Virginia.  The  only 
Southern  state  from  which  Washington's  administration 
had  received  any  substantial  support  was  South  Carolina. 
In  that  state  there  were  several  able  and  influential  men 
who  had  been  educated  in  England,  and  who  did  not 
participate  in  that  bitter  antipathy  toward  the  mother 
country  which  seems  to  have  been  the  leading  principle 
of  the  Virginia  politicians.  On  the  great  question  of 
the  assumption  of  the  state  debts,  the  interests  of  New 
England  and  South  Carolina  had  been  coincident,  and 
they  had  also  united  against  the  Virginia  scheme  of  re- 
taliatory restrictions  on  British  navigation  and  commerce. 
Yet  the  opposition  party,  led  by  Charles  Pinckney  and 
lately  re-enforced  by  John  Rutledge,  kept  the  balance  of 
power  in  that  state  exceedingly  doubtful. 

Other  reasons  aside,  the  dissatisfaction   of  Georgia 
IV.— S  * 


(542;  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED  STATES. 

cHAi'Tisii  with  the  Indian  policy  of  the  government — especially  its 
"  refusal  to  allow  the  Creeks  to  be  bullied  or  frightened 

J796.  into  the  involuntary  cession  of  the  tract  between  the 
Oconee  and  the  Oakmulgee — was  enough  to  throw  her 
decidedly  into  the  opposition.  At  the  present  moment, 
attention  in  Georgia  was  chiefly  engrossed,  and  the  feel- 
ing against  New  England  greatly  excited,  by  the  spec- 
ulative purchases,  already  referred  to,  of  the  pre-emption 
right  to  the  lands  west  of  the  Chattahooche.  Jackson, 
the  Georgia  senator,  had  resigned  his  seat,  and  procured 
himself  to  be  elected  a  member  of  the  state  Legislature, 
for  the  very  purpose  of  nullifying  those  sales,  a  business 
into  which  he  entered  with  characteristic  energy.  The 
lands  had  been  sold  for  the  sum  of  $500,000  to  four  sep- 
arate companies,  the  Georgia,  the  Georgia  Mississippi, 
the  Upper  Mississippi,  and  the  Tennessee.  The  right  to 
become  interested  in  these  purchases  to  the  extent  of  two 
millions  of  acres,  on  the  same  terms  as  the  original  mem- 
bers, was  reserved  by  the  act  to  the  citizens  of  Georgia; 
and  it  appeared  that  of  the  members  of  the  Legislature 
who  voted  for  the  bill,  all  except  one  did,  in  fact,  become 
interested,  under  this  provision,  in  one  or  more  of  the 
companies.  Upon  this  state  of  facts,  together  with  other 
general  allegations  of  corruption  and  of  the  inadequacy  of 
the  sum  paid,  the  Legislature  of  the  present  year  passed  a 
Feb.  new  act,  revoking  the  sale  as  unconstitutional  and  void, 
and  directing  the  repayment  to  the  companies  of  their 
respective  amounts  of  the  purchase  money,  if  called  for 
within  eight  months ;  the  several  amounts  uncalled  for 
at  the  end  of  that  period  to  be  adjudged  "  derelict,  and 
forfeit  to  the  state."  As  an  additional  evidence  of  the 
indignation  of  the  Legislature,  and  a  means,  too,  of  de- 
stroying all  proof  of  the  existence  of  the  grant,  the  orig- 
inal act  authorizing  the  sale  was  ordered  to  be  burned, 


GEORGIA.    YAZOO    LANDS. 

antt  all  the  records  relating  to  it  to  be  expunged.      The  CHAPTER 

burning  was  executed  with  great  formality.      Tne  two 

houses,  moving  in  procession  for  that  purpose,  were  pre-  1796. 
ceded  by  a  committee  bearing  the  obnoxious  parchments. 
A  fire  having  been  kindled  in  front  of  the  State  House, 
the  committee  handed  the  documents  to  the  President  of 
the  Senate,  he  to  the  Speaker  of  the  House,  he  to  the 
clerk,  and  the  clerk  to  the  door-keeper,  by  whose  hands 
they  were  committed  to  the  flames. 

Previous  to  this  attempt  to  nullify  the  sale,  the  orig- 
inal purchasers,  among  whom  were  Patrick  Henry, 
Judge  Wilson,  and  other  distinguished  citizens,  had  al- 
ready transferred  their  rights  to  others.  These  transfers 
had  been  made  partly  in  South  Carolina  and  the  Middle 
States,  but  principally  in  New  England,  at  a  large  ad- 
vance on  the  original  purchase  money.  Nor  were  these 
new  purchasers  at  all  disposed  to  concede  the  right  of 
the  Georgia  Legislature  to  nullify  the  contracts  of  their 
predecessors,  especially  in  a  case  like  the  present,  where 
the  interests  of  third  parties  were  concerned.  Hence 
loud  complaints  of  unconstitutional  breach  of  faith  on 
the  one  side,  and  of  corruption  and  fraud  on  the  other. 
When  these  same  lands  were  subsequently  sold  by  Geor- 
gia to  the  United  States,  Congress,  as  we  shall  see,  was 
loudly  called  upon  for  an  indemnity  to  the  claimants 
under  the  Georgia  grants ;  but  this  claim  was  very  vig- 
orously contested,  and  near  twenty  years  elapsed  before 
the  matter  was  brought  to  a  final  settlement. 

A  renewal  of  the  treaty  with  the  Creeks  failed,  in-  June  w 
deed,  to  satisfy  the  Georgians,  as  no  new  cessions  of 
land  were  obtained ;  but  it  put  an  end  to  the  mutual 
depredations  which  had  prevailed  on  that  frontier,  and 
provided  for  the  restoration  of  prisoners  and  property 
aaptured  by  the  Indians.  The  mutual  boundaries  of  the 


644  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  Creeks.  Chickasaws,  and  Chootaws  were  settled  bv  the 

VIII 

'  same  instrument ,  andr  in  consideration  of  an  additional 
1796.  annuity  of  $6000,  and  the  providing  the  Creeks  with 
two  blacksmiths,  the  right  was  obtained  to  establish 
within  their  territory  such  posts  and  trading-houses  as 
the  president  might  think  necessary.  Thus  was  com- 
pleted the  system  of  Indian  pacification,  to  which  the 
violence  of  the  backwoodsmen,  and  their  disregard  of  the 
rights  of  the  Indians,  had  long  opposed  such  serious  ob 
stacles,  but  which  Washington  had  so  much  at  heart,  and 
which  does  so  much  honor  to  his  administration. 


ABLATIONS   WITH    FRANCE. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

RELATIONS  WITH  FRANCE.  MISSION  AND  RECALL  OF 
MONROE.  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  SECOND  SESSION 
OF  THE  FOURTH  CONGRESS. 


AY'S  treaty  relieved  the  country  from  the  immediate  CHAPTER 


J 

and  pressing  danger  of  a  British  and  Indian  war.  But 
as  respected  relations  with  France,  it  exposed  the  admin-  1796. 
istration  to  new  and  very  serious  embarrassments.  In 
their  verbal  assent  to  the  position  of  neutrality  assumed 
at  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  by  Washington's  proc- 
lamation, neither  the  administrators  of  the  French  gov- 
ernment, nor  their  numerous  and  enthusiastic  partisans 
in  the  United  States,  had  contemplated  any  thing  more 
than  a  sort  of  trick  upon  Great  Britain.  They  were 
willing  that  the  United  States  should  secure,  if  they 
could,  so  far  as  Great  Britain  was  concerned,  the  ad- 
vantages of  a  neutral  position  ;  but  they  expected  that 
substantial  aid  and  service  would  at  the  same  time  be 
rendered  to  France,  not  only  by  giving  a  most  liberal 
construction  to  every  provision  of  the  treaty  in  her  favor, 
but  by  stretching  indulgence  even  beyond.  Such  a 
course  of  policy,  at  once  weak  and  treacherous,  was  en- 
tirely  repugnant  to  Washington's  temper  and  judgment; 
and  the  steadiness  with  which  he  had  maintained  a  real 
neutrality  had  greatly  disappointed  both  the  French  gov- 
ernment and  their  partisans  in  America.  It  was  impos- 
sible for  them,  inflamed  as  they  were  by  the  most  excited 
feelings,  to  reconcile  such  a  course  of  even-handed  impar- 
tiality with  the  obligations,  direct  or  implied,  growing  out 
of  the  treaties;  with  that  friendship  for  France  which,  on 


646      HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATLS. 

CHAPTER  all  public  occasions,  Washington  uniformly  expressed  j 
'  and  still  less  with  that  sympathy  and  fraternity  which, 
1796.  as  they  thought,  ought  to  exist  between  two  sister  re- 
publics. Hence,  even  before  Jay's  mission,  the  belief 
on  the  part  of  France  and  her  partisans  that  Washing- 
ton's administration  was  secretly  hostile  to  the  French 
cause.  Not  to  take  an  active  part  against  the  "  con- 
spiracy of  kings,"  however  such  a  course  might  have 
been  useless  to  France  and  ruinous  to  the  United  States, 
seemed  like  treachery  to  the  rights  of  man,  and  a  mean 
subserviency  to  hated  England. 

This  view  of  the  feelings  and  policy  of  the  American 
administration,  constantly  held  forth  in  the  diplomatic 
correspondence  of  Genet  and  Fauchet,  and  countenanced 
by  the  tone  of  the  opposition  newspapers,  received  ad' 
ditional  confirmation  in  the  minds,  first  of  the  Girond- 
ists, and  then  of  the  Jacobins,  by  whom  the  affairs 
of  the  French  republic  were  successively  administered, 
from  the  opinions  and  conduct  of  Gouverneur  Morris, 
Jefferson's  successor  as  the  representative  of  the  Amer- 
ican government  in  France.  Amid  all  the  tumultuous 
scenes  which  had  attended  and  followed  the  formation 
and  downfall  of  the  first  Constitution,  the  overthrow  of 
the  monarchy,  the  proclamation  of  the  republic,  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  Girondists  from  the  Convention,  the  tri- 
umph of  the  Jacobins,  and  the  establishment  of  the  Reign 
of  Terror,  Morris  had  discharged  the  duties  of  his  diffi- 
cult position  with  great  tact  and  good  sense,  and  with  a 
strict  adherence  to  Washington's  system  of  exact  neu- 
trality. This  alone  might  have  been  sufficient  to  render 
him  obnoxious  ;  but  there  were  other  reasons  also.  Cool, 
sagacious,  and  having  enjoyed  the  experience  of  one  rev- 
olution, he  shared  but  little  in  the  prevailing  political 
enthusiasm.  He  thought  something  more  necessary  for 


MONROE'S    MISSION   TO    FRANCE.  547 

the  establishment  of  liberty  than  the  proclamation  of  the  CHAPTER 
rights  of  man  and  the  overthrow  of  authority.,.  He  did  - 
not  believe  France  capable  of  a  republican  government.  179-1. 
His  friends  and  associates  had  been  chiefly  among  those 
denounced  as  Monarchists  and  Moderates.  He  had  also 
been  the  friend  of  the  unfortunate  Louis — a  circum- 
stance which  disqualified  him  from  possessing  the  confi- 
dence of  any  of  the  republican  factions  which  so  rapidly 
succeeded  and  guillotined  each  other.  While  sending 
letters  of  recall  to  Genet,  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety, 
in  which  Robespierre  and  his  associates  were  predomin- 
ant, solicited  the  recall  of  Morris.  For  reasons  of  policy, 
the  president  had  yielded  ;  but  he  wrote,  at  the  same 
time,  a  private  letter  expressing  his  satisfaction  with 
Morris's  diplomatic  conduct.  That  letter,  sent  by  a 
British  vessel,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French  govern- 
ment, and  tended  to  increase  the  suspicions  with  which 
the  American  administration  was  regarded.  In  sending 
Monroe  as  the  successor  of  Morris  cotemporaneously 
with  the  mission  of  Jay  to  England,  Washington  prob- 
ably hoped  that  the  appointment  of  so  open  and  decided 
a  friend  of  France  would  tend  to  mollify  the  French 
government,  as  well  as  the  French  party  in  the  United 
States.  It  was  probably  expected  that,  by  accepting 
the  mission,  Monroe  would  find  himself,  as  Jefferson 
had  done  in  the  case  of  Genet,  constrained  to  support 
the  policy  of  the  government,  even  against  his  own  pri- 
vate inclinations — a  support  which  could  hardly  fail  to 
render  that  policy  less  obnoxious  to  the  American  friends 
of  France.  But  there  was  a  great  difference  between 
Jefferson  writing  under  Washington's  supervision,  and 
with  the  keen  eye  of  Hamilton  upon  him,  and  Monroe 
across  the  ocean,  able,  by  a  liberal  interpretation  of  his 
instructions,  to  presume,  however  he  might  really  know 


HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

the  contrary,  that  the  policy  which  he  himself  approved 
*.-.  was  that  which  the  government  intended  to  pursue. 
Care,  indeed,  had  been  taken  to  tie  up  his  hands  by  re- 
serving for  discussion  in  America  all  new  stipulations, 
either  regarding  the  guarantee,  or  with  respect  to  com- 
merce or  navigation.  But  with  the  new  French  poli- 
tics, new  maxims  of  private  honor  seern  to  have  come 
into  vogue,  and  neither  his  instructions,  nor  the  general 
obligations  of  good  faith  to  which  he  subjected  himself  by 
accepting  the  mission,  prevented  Monroe  from  adopting 
a  course  greatly  at  variance,  as  he  could  not  but  know, 
with  the  policy  of  the  administration,  for  which  he 
seemed  inclined  to  substitute,  as  a  guide,  his  own  private 
and  party  political  views. 

Monroe  arrived  in  Paris  shortly  after  the  fall  of  Robes- 
pierre. The  government  had  passed  into  the  hands  of 
those  members  of  the  Convention  known  as  Thermadori- 
ans,  who  had  combined  to  overthrow  Robespierre's  tyran- 
ny. But  the  Reign  of  Terror,  in  the  atrocities  of  which 
many  of  these  same  men  had  largely  participated,  was 
yet  by  no  means  at  an  end.  Most  of  the  arbitrary  de- 
crees issued  during  that  period  still  remained  in  force. 
Such  were  the  laws  relating  to  foreign  commerce,  which 
had  originated  partly  in  hatred  of  the  Girondins,  mostly 
of  the  class  of  merchants,  capitalists,  and  manufactur- 
ers, and  partly  also  in  a  real  terror  of  the  introduction 
of  foreign  influence  and  foreign  gold  through  the  chan- 
nels of  trade.  All  exterior  commerce  carried  on  by  in- 
dividuals had  been  abolished.  The  government  was  the 
only  purchaser.  Ship-masters  arriving  with  cargoes  in 
French  ports  had  no  option  to  sell  or  not ;  they  were 
obliged  to  sell  at  all  events.  To  pay  for  these  pur- 
chases, principally  provisions,  of  which  there  was  a  groat 
scarcity  in  France,  the  government  had  nothing  but  as- 


MONROE'S   MISSION   TO    FRANCE.  549, 

signals,  already  at  a  great  discount,  and  rapidly  depre-  CHAPTER 

elating.      Even  these  it  was  difficult  to  get,  and,  when L_ 

obtained,  they  could  not  be  laid  out  in  the  purchase  of  a  1794. 
return  cargo  without  special  license. 

According  to  his  own  account,  in  an  official  letter  in 
vindication  of  himself  against  the  strictures  of  the  State 
Department,  Monroe  found  American  affairs  "  in  the 
worst  possible  condition."  "  Our  commerce  was  harassed 
in  every  quarter  and  in  every  article,  even  that  of  to- 
bacco not  excepted" — a  very  poor  return  for  the  zeal  of 
Virginia  in  the  French  cause.  "  American  seamen, 
taken  from  on  board  our  vessels,  were  often  abused,  gen- 
erally imprisoned,  and  treated  in  other  respects  like  the 
subjects  of  hostile  powers.  Our  former  minister  was  not 
only  without  the  confidence  of  the  government,  but  an 
object  of  particular  jealousy  and  distrust.  In  addition 
to  which,  it  was  suspected  that  we  were  about  to  aban- 
don them  for  a  connection  with  England,  for  which  pur- 
pose principally  it  was  believed  that  Jay  had  been  sent 
there."  In  consequence  of  unfavorable  reports  brought 
home  by  the  officers  of  French  ships  of  war,  the  friendly 
disposition  toward  America  had  greatly  abated.  Even 
Monroe,  though  his  zeal  for  the  French  cause  was  well 
known,  was  received  at  first  with  marked  coldness,  it  be- 
ing naturally  supposed  that,  having  accepted  an  appoint- 
ment from  the  American  government,  he  must  be  pre- 
pared to  conform  himself  to  its  policy.  The  Commit- 
tee of  Public  Safety — in  which  the  administrative  func- 
tions continued  principally  to  rest — or,  at  least,  the  con- 
trolling party  in  it,  were  disposed,  according  to  Monroe's 
account,  to  delay  his  reception,  indeed,  to  throw  him  en- 
tirely out  of  view,  and  so  to  destroy  the  effect  of  his  mis- 
sion. The  connection  between  the  two  countries  seemed 
to  hang  upon  a  thread,  and  Monroe  insisted  that  if  some 


t)50  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  person   possessing,  like    himself,  the    confidence   of   the 
_____ _  French  had  not  been  sent,  that  thread  would  have  been' 

1794.  broken. 

From  the  moment  of  its  institution,  the  French  re- 
public had  been  administered  in  the  spirit  of  the  most  in- 
tolerant and  unrelenting  despotism.  It  had  been,  in  fact, 
one  continued  reign  of  terror ;  imprisonment  and  the  guil 
lotine  being  the  formidable  instruments  by  which  all  op- 
position had  been  silenced.  All  this,  however,  had  not 
in  the  least  shaken  Monroe's  faith  in  the  excellence  or 
permanency  of  the  new  French  political  system,  nor  in 
the  policy  which  he  had  brought  with  him  from  Virginia, 
of  an  intimate  and  fraternal  union  with  France.  In  his 
eyes,  and  in  those  of  many  others,  every  excess  was  ex- 
cused by  the  necessities  of  the  war  and  the  pressurt 
from  without.  Had  not  a  like  necessity,  less  in  degree, 
and  therefore  less  noticeable  in  its  effects,  driven  the  rev- 
olutionary governments  of  America  into  many  arbitrary 
and  violent  proceedings  ?  Reeking,  as  it  was,  in  the 
blood  of  so  many  victims,  including  the  most  illustrious 
founders  of  the  Republican  party,  even  Thomas  Paine 
himself  being  in  prison  ;  trampling  under  foot  every  one 
of  those  rights  of  man  and  those  principles  of  policy 
which  its  Constitution  had  proclaimed — a  Constitution 
suspended  as  soon  as  made — Monroe  saw,  nevertheless, 
in  the  French  republic  the  great  avatar  of  European  lib- 
erty, to  which  also  America  might  look  for  guidance  and 
instruction,  as  well  as  for  protection  against  monarchists 
and  aristocrats  at  home  as  well  as  abroad.  Filled  with 
these  enthusiastic  sentiments,  his  policy  seems  to  have 
been  to  commit  the  United  States  to  France  so  thor- 
oughly and  completely  as  to  counterwork  Washington's 
system  of  impartial  neutrality.  As  a  senator,  he  had 
not  been  able  to  prevent  Jay's  mission  ;  as  embassador 


MONROE'S    RECEPTION,  fi  5  i 

to  France,    he   might   succeed   in  defeating  it.      With  CHAPTER 

these  ideas,  and  this  object  in  view,  he  was  not  long  in 

coming  to  an  understanding  with  the  administrators  of   1794. 
the  French  government. 

On  the  ground  that  his  application  to  the  committee 
had  not  been  answered,  Monroe  addressed  a  letter  directly 
to  the  Convention,  requesting  them  to  fix  the  day  and 
prescribe  the  mode  in  which  he  should  be  acknowledged 
"  as  the  representative  of  their  ally  and  sister  republic." 
At  the  same  time,  he  took  occasion  to  testify  his  own 
"  devotion  to  the  cause  of  liberty,"  and  to  "  assure  them, 
in  the  most  solemn  manner,  of  the  profound  interest  taken 
by  the  government  and  people  of  America  in  the  liberty, 
the  success,  and  the  prosperity  of  the  French  republic." 
This  letter,  as  soon  as  read,  was  referred  to  the  Com- 
mittee of  Safety,  and  a  report  was  soon  brought  in  and 
adopted  by  the  Convention  to  give  the  American  minis- 
ter a  public  reception  the  next  day. 

Monroe  had  been  authorized  by  his  instructions  to 
declare  the  very  friendly  wishes  of  the  president  and  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States  for  the  success  of  the 
French  Revolution,  and  to  contradict  the  reports  believed 
to  have  been  forwarded  to  France  by  Genet  and  others 
of  two  parties  in  the  United  States,  one  republican  and 
friendly  to  the  French  Revolution,  the  other  monarchical, 
aristocratic,  British,  and  anti-Gallican.  He  had  also 
been  made  the  bearer  of  two  letters  from  the  Department 
of  State,  founded  on  resolutions  adopted  by  the  two 
houses  of  Congress,  expressive,  especially  that  on  behalf 
of  the  House,  of  very  decided  sympathy  for  France,  and 
written  by  way  of  reply  to  a  letter  from  the  French 
Committee  of  Public  Safety  addressed  to  Congress,  and 
brought  out  by  Fauchet. 

Resolved  to  make  the  most  public  use  of  this  author- 


(,52  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  ity  and  these  documents,  Monroe  readily  agreed  to  tlia 
.  pageant ;   indeed,  i-t  had  doubtless  been  all  arranged  be- 

1794.  fore  his  letter  was  written.  Introduced  into  the  Con- 
Aug.  14.  vention,  he  presented  a  written  address  (of  which  a 
French  translation  was  read  by  one  of  the  secretaries], 
expressing,  very  much  in  the  prevailing  style  of  the 
American  Democratic  societies,  and  with  very  little  of 
diplomatic  reserve,  admiration  alike  of  the  fortitude,  mag 
nanimity,  and  heroic  valor  of  the  French  troops,  and  of 
the  wisdom  and  firmness  of  the  French  councils.  To 
this  address  a  reply  was  made  by  Merlin  de  Douay, 
president  of  the  Convention — a  comprehensive  and  point- 
ed statement  of  what  the  French  republic  expected  of 
America,  all  of  which  Monroe  and  the  French- American 
faction  were  ready  and  anxious  to  grant.  "  The  French 
people,"  said  Merlin,  "  have  not  forgotten  that  it  is  to 
the  American  people  that  they  owe  their  initiation  into 
the  cause  of  liberty.  It  was  in  admiring  the  sublime 
insurrection  of  the  American  people  against  Britain,  once 
so  haughty,  but  now  so  humbled ;  it  was  in  themselves 
taking  arms  to  second  your  courageous  efforts,  and  in 
cementing  your  independence  by  the  blood  of  our  brave 
warriors,  that  the  French  people  learned  in  their  turn  to 
break  the  scepter  of  tyranny,  and  to  elevate  the  statue 
of  Liberty  on  the  wreck  of  a  throne,  supported  during 
fourteen  centuries  only  by  crimes  and  by  corruption. 

"  How,  then,  should  it  happen  that  we  shoulti  not  be 
friends  ?  Why  should  we  not  associate  the  mutual 
means  of  prosperity  that  our  commerce  and  navigation 
offer  to  two  people  freed  by  each  other  ?  But  it  is  not 
merely  a  diplomatic  alliance ;  it  is  the  sweetest,  the  most 
frank  fraternity  that  must  at  the  same  time  unite  us, 
that,  indeed,  already  unites  us ;  and  this  union  shall  be 
forever  indissoluble,  as  it  wjl  be  forever  the  diead  of  ty 


MONROE'S   RECEPTION.  (353 

rants,  the  safeguard  of  the  liberty  of  the  world,  and  the  CHAPTER 
preserver  of  all  the  social  and  philanthropic  virtues  !  - 

"  In  bringing  to  us,  citizen,  the  pledge  of  this  union,  1794 
so  dear  to  us,  you  could  not  fail  to  be  received  with  the 
liveliest  emotions.  Five  years  ago,  a  usurper  of  the 
sovereignty  of  the  people  would  have  received  you  with 
the  pride  which  alone  belongs  to  vice,  thinking  it  much 
to  have  given  to  the  minister  of  a  free  people  some  tok- 
ens of  an  insolent  protection.  But  to-day,  the  sovereign 
people  themselves,  by  the  organ  of  their  faithful  repre- 
sentatives, receive  you  ;  and  you  see  the  tenderness,  the 
effusion  of  soul,  that  accompanies  this  simple  and  touch- 
ing ceremony  !  I  am  impatient  to  give  you  the  frater- 
nal embrace,  which  I  am  ordered  to  give  in  the  name 
of  the  French  people.  Come  and  receive  it  in  the  name 
of  the  American  people,  and  let  this  spectacle  complete 
the  annihilation  of  an  impious  coalition  of  tyrants  !" 

At  this  word  Monroe  stepped  forward,  and  received 
and  returned  Merlin's  national  embrace,  thus  publicly 
responding  and  assenting  to  the  speech  by  which  it  had 
been  introduced.  The  process  verbal  or  minute  of  the 
sitting  was  ordered  to  be  transmitted  by  the  President 
of  the  Convention  in  a  letter  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States.  Monroe  was  even  offered  one  of  the  con- 
fiscated hotels  of  the  nobility  as  a  place  of  residence ; 
but  this  he  declined,  on  the  strength  of  that  clause  of  the 
Constitution  which  forbids  the  receiving,  by  any  public 
officer,  of  any  present  or  emolument  from  any  foreign 
state. 

This  theatrical  accolade,  in  which  the  American  gov- 
ernment had  been  itself  made  to  play  a  part  by  the  pres- 
entation of  the  letters  written  by  the  president's  order 
on  behalf  of  the  two  houses,  was  far  from  being  approved 
•of  by  the  president  and  his  cabinet.  Randolph's  official 


654  HISTORY  OF    THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  letter  to  Monroe,  written  as  soon  as  the  news  of  these 
'  proceedings  arrived  in  America,  suggested  that  a  private 
1794.  reception  and  an  oral  speech,  not  for  publication,  had 
been  what  the  cabinet  expected.  His  instructions  did 
not  justify  "  the  extreme  glow"  of  some  parts  of  his  ad* 
dress.  The  letter  from  the  House  of  Representatives, 
which  Monroe  had  presented  as  expressing  the  senti- 
ments of  the  president  also,  ought  to  have  been  placed 
in  no  other  light,  so  far  as  he  was  concerned,  than  as  an 
execution  of  the  task  imposed  upon  him  by  that  body 
Before  entering  on  such  a  public  display  of  diplomatic 
civilities,  the  minister  ought  to  have  remembered  that 
the  United  States  were  neutral,  and  that  offense  might 
be  taken  by  England  and  Spain,  with  both  of  which  na- 
tions important  negotiations  were  then  on  foot.  He 
ought  to  have  considered  that,  some  time  or  other,  it 
might  become  necessary  "  to  explain  away  or  disavow 
an  excess  of  fervor,  so  as  to  reduce  it  down  to  the  cool 
system  of  neutrality."  He  was  to  cultivate  the  friend- 
ship of  the  French  republic  with  zeal,  indeed,  but  with- 
out unnecessary  eclat.  The  dictates  of  sincerity  did  not 
demand  that  the  United  States  should  render  notorious 
all  their  feelings  in  favor  of  the  French  nation. 

Long  before  this  rebuke  arrived,  Monroe  had  gone 
much  further  in  the  same  road.  The  Convention  hav- 
ing passed  a  decree  for  suspending  in  their  hall  the  flags 
of  the  two  republics  intertwined  together,  in  testimony 
of  eternal  union  and  friendship,  Monroe  took  upon  him- 
self to  send  an  American  flag  in  the  name  of  the  Amer- 
Sept.  9.  ican  people.  It  was  conveyed  by  the  hand  of  Barney, 
a  Baltimore  ship-master,  who  had  accompanied  Monroe 
to  France.  Having  served  as  a  naval  officer  during  the 
Revolutionary  war,  he  had  been  lately  nominated  as  a 
captain  of  the  embryo  American  navy ;  but,  as  no  emol  • 


INTERCHANGE    OF    FLAGS.  QQfi 

aments  were  yet  attached  to  the  appointment,  he  does  CHAPTER 

not  appear  to  have  accepted  it.      In  addition  to  a  letter 

from  Monroe,  Barney  delivered  a  speech  of  his  own;  1794. 
and,  besides  the  fraternal  embrace  of  the  president,  he 
received  soon  after  a  commission  in  the  French  navy 
and  the  command  of  two  frigates — a  service  into  which 
he  entered  with  the  more  zeal,  since  his  hatred  of  the 
British  had  been  aggravated  by  the  recent  seizure  in  the 
West  Indies  of  a  trading  vessel  which  he  had  command- 
ed, and  his  own  imprisonment  for  some  alleged  breach  of 
neutral  duties.  In  return  for  this  flag,  the  Committee 
of  Public  Safety  ordered  the  French  colors  to  be  sent  to  Oct.  21 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  ;  and  Monroe  thus 
had  the  satisfaction  of  getting  up  in  America  a  reciprocal 
outpouring  of  political  sentiment,  the  devotees  of  France 
joining  in  it  with  pure  zeal,  and  the  president  and  the 
Federalists  out  of  policy.  This,  however,  did  not  take 
place  till  more  than  a,  year  after  the  Paris  pageant. 
The  French  colors  were  long  in  reaching  the  United 
States,  and  their  presentation  only  took  place  a  short 
time  previous  to  the  commencement  of  the  discussion  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  on  the  ratification  of  Jays 
treaty — an  occasion,  however,  which  made  both  parties 
the  more  zealous ;  the  opposition  wishing  to  signalize 
their  devotion  to  France,  and  the  Federalists  to  escape 
the  charge  of  a  want  of  due  affection  for  the  sister  re- 
public. Presented  on  New  Year's  day  by  the  French  1796 
embassador,  with  an  address  to  which  the  president  re- 
sponded, these  colors  were  ordered  to  be  deposited  with 
the  archives  of  the  nation.  The  president  stated  these 
facts  in  a  message  to  both  houses,  at  the  same  time  send- 
ing the  colors  for  exhibition  ;  and  both  houses,  by  unan- 
imous resolutions,  expressed  their  sensibility  on  the  oc- 
casion. In  the  Senate,  this  outspread  of  sentiment  was 


HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

a  little  trimmed  down,  but  in  the  House,  where  the  op- 
'       position  had  the  majority,  the  devotees  of  France  were 

1794.  suffered  to  laud  in  their  own  terms  that  "magnanimous" 
nation — an  epithet  which  the  majority  of  the  Senate  re- 
fused to  employ. 

August.  Immediately  after  his  public  recognition,  Monroe  found 
himself  surrounded  by  American  ship-masters  and  mer- 
chants, some  claiming  payment  for  cargoes  which  they 
had  been  forced  to  sell  to  the  French  government ;  some 
seeking  the  liquidation  of  dishonored  bills,  drawn  by 
French  agents  in  America  in  payment  for  provisions 
shipped  to  France  or  the  French  West  Indies ;  some 
demanding  indemnity  for  their  losses  by  the  Bordeaux 
embargo,  by  which  a  hundred  American  vessels  had 
been  detained  for  more  than  a  year  ;  some  asking  to  be 
paid  for  their  cargoes  of  provisions  bound  to  England, 
but  seized  by  French  cruisers  —  a  payment  promised 
by  the  government,  but  not  yet  made  ;  and  others  com- 
plaining that,  in  violation  of  the  article  of  the  treaty 
by  which  the  mutual  right  was  secured  of  carrying  en- 
emy's goods  and  enemy  passengers,  not  only  had  their 
cargoes  and  passengers  been  taken  from  them,  but  their 
ships  also  had  been  detained.  As  there  had  been  no 
American  consul  at  Paris  since  Barclay's  death,  Mon- 
roe appointed  temporarily  to  that  office  his  secretary, 
Fulwer  Skipwith,  formerly  a  resident  in  some  commer- 
cial capacity  in  one  of  the  French  West  India  islands, 
and  not  less  a  devotee  of  the  French  republic  than  Mon- 
roe himself.  A  formidable  list  of  claims  was  soon  drawn 
up  by  Skipwith  ;  but  as  to  those  founded  on  breaches 
of  the  French  treaty  in  the  seizure  of  enemy's  goods  in 
American  vessels,  Monroe  was  disposed  to  make  a  re- 
markable concession.  He  applied,  indeed,  to  the  French 

Sept. 3.   government  to  rescind  the  order  authorizing  suoh  cap- 


MONROE'S  UNAUTHORIZED  CONCESSIONS   557 

lures  ;   but  this  application  was  based,  not  on  the  pro-  CHAPTEE 

visions  of  the  treaty,  but  on  an  argument  of  which  the _ 

abject  was  to  show  that  the  repeal  of  the  order  would  1794. 
be  for  the  pecuniary  and  commercial  interests  of  France. 
He  even  went  so  far  as  to  state  that  he  had  no  instruc- 
tions to  complain  of  that  order  as  a  breach  of  the  treaty, 
and  that,  should  it  be  thought  productive  of  any  solid 
benefit  to  France,  the  American  government  and  people 
would  bear  it,  not  only  "  with  patience,  but  with  pleas- 
ure." He  justified  this  course,  in  his  dispatches  to  the 
State  Department,  by  referring  to  the  silence  of  his  in- 
structions as  to  any  particular  remonstrances  against  this 
breach  of  the  treaty,  which  he  was  inclined  to  suppose 
had  been  tacitly  acquiesced  in  from  the  soundest  motives 
of  policy.  As  the  French  republic,  "  out  of  a  spirit  of 
magnanimity  and  a  strong  attachment  to  our  welfare," 
had  omitted  to  call  upon  us  for  the  execution  of  the 
guarantee  of  the  treaty  of  alliance,  it  seemed  to  Mon- 
roe but  a  corresponding  piece  of  magnanimity  on  our 
part  silently  to  acquiesce  in  any  breaches  of  the  treaty 
of  commerce  \vhich  the  French  might  find  convenient. 
But  this  view  by  no  means  corresponded  with  the  inten- 
tions of  the  American  government.  In  the  same  letter 
of  rebuke,  already  quoted,  Randolph  peremptorily  denied 
that  Monroe's  instructions  afforded  the  least  countenance 
for  any  such  extraordinary  assumptions  and  gratuitous 
assurances.  The  breach  of  the  treaty  by  the  order  in 
question  had  been  long  since  complained  of  to  the  French 
government  by  Morris.  Monroe  had  been  expressly  in- 
structed to  demand  indemnity  for  the  vessels  seized  un- 
der it,  for  which  there  could  be  no  pretense  except  on  the 
ground  of  a  breach  of  treaty.  The  guarantee,  he  was 
reminded,  was  a  subject  specially  reserved  for  discussion 
ill  America.  If  the  fear  of  a  demand  under  that  head 
IV.— T  T 


558  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  was  to  prevent  all  complaints  on  our  part,  of  what  use 

was  the  treaty  at  all  ?      Even  allowing  that  friendship 

1794.  for  the  French  republic  might  induce  us  to  sustain  an 
injury  with  pleasure,  yet  to  submit  to  the  invasion  with- 
out consulting  us  of  one  of  our  rights  might  become  a 
very  dangerous  precedent. 

Before  returning  any  answer  to  Monroe's  applications 
for  commercial  redress,  the  French  government  seemed 
resolved  to  ascertain  how  far  he  might  be  willing  io  go. 
iVov.  5.  Having  stated  to  him  the  determination  to  push  the  war 
with  vigor,  particularly  as  against  England,  the  diplo- 
matic members  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  wished 
to  be  informed  whether  any  aid  could  be  procured  from 
America  toward  the  relief  of  that  pecuniary  pressure 
under  which  the  republic  was  suffering.  To  this  deli- 
cate application  Monroe  did  not  hesitate  to  answer  that 
any  aid  would  be  rendered  in  the  power  of  the  United 
States  to  give — such,  at  least,  was  his  opinion  ;  for,  with 
all  his  adroitness  at  interpretation,  he  was  not  able  to 
find  in  his  instructions  any  authority  for  such  assur- 
ances. Soon  afterward  he  submitted  a  paper,  suggest- 
ing three  sources  from  which  he  thought  money  might 
be  obtained  :  the  states,  the  general  government,  and  in- 
dividuals. But.  to  make  the  general  government  lend 
freely,  France  must  agree  to  make  no  peace  with  Brit- 
ain or  Spain  which  did  not  include  a  favorable  settle- 
ment of  the  points  in  dispute  between  those  nations  and 
the  United  States.  This  matter  should  form  a  part  of 
the  instructions  to  the  new  French  minister  about  to 
be  sent  to  supersede  Fauchet,  recalled  as  of  the  Robes- 
pierre faction.  In  his  dispatches  to  the  State  Depart- 
ment, giving  an  account  of  his  doings  in  this  behalf, 
Monroe  urged  with  zeal  the  policy  of  a  loan  to  the 
French.  The  amount  wanted  was  about  five  millions 


PROJECT  OF  A  LOAN  TO  FRANCE.      6  O  9 

ot  dollars — a  cheap  price,  Monroe  thought,  at  which  io  CHAPTEB 

hire  France  to  fight  our  battles.      In  that  case  we  might , 

seize  at  once  the  Western  posts,  and  the  territory  on  the  1794 
Lower  Mississippi  occupied  by  the  Spaniards,  and  trust 
to  French  aid  to  see  us  out  of  the  war;  if,  indeed,  war 
should  follow — which,  considering  the  rapid  successes  of 
the  French  arms,  Monroe  hardly  thought  likely  on  the 
part  either  of  Spain  or  Britain.  The  infatuated  Mon- 
roe was  wholly  unable  to  perceive  that  his  proposition 
tended  to  put  the  United  States  in  the  position  of  a  hum- 
ble dependent  on  France,  obliged  to  follow  her  fortune  in 
war,  and  liable  to  be  called  upon  for  an  indefinite  amount 
of  new  loans  as  the  consideration  for  continued  protection. 

This  project  of  purchasing  French  aid  met  with  no 
encouragement  whatever  from  the  American  government. 
Tn  Randolph's  first  letter,  after  the  receipt  of  these  dis- 
patches, while  deferring  a  full  examination  of  the  matter 
to  a  subsequent  opportunity,  it  was  briefly  stated  that 
the  step  which  Monroe  had  taken  was  "  viewed  as  a  very 
strong  one."  In  another  letter,  shortly  after,  Monroe 
was  informed  that,  notwithstanding  the  rapid  successes 
of  France,  the  course  of  the  government  was  still  steadily 
directed  to  the  neutrality  which  it  professed;  and,  there- 
fore, that  his  step  respecting  a  loan,  the  more  it  was 
considered,  the  stronger  it  appeared.  Pending  more  par- 
ticular instructions,  he  was  reminded  that  it  was  "  the 
invariable  policy  of  the  president  to  be  as  independent  as 
possible  of  every  nation  on  earth,  a  policy  not  assumed 
now  for  the  first  time,  but  wise  at  all  times,  and  cer- 
tain, if  steadily  pursued,  to  protect  our  country  from  the 
effects  of  commotions  in  Europe." 

The  French  Convention,  having  received  from  Mon- 
roe satisfactory,  though  unauthorized  assurances  as  to 
the  disposition  of  the  United  States,  presently  repealed  Nov.  1R 


660      HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


CHAPTER  the  provision  order,  and  also  the  order  for  the  forced  sale 
'         of  cargoes.      The  payment  of  the  debts  due  for  provisions 
1794.  was  also  promised,  and  indemnity  to  the  sufferers  by  the 
Bordeaux  embargo.      But  all  these  promises  were  prom- 
ises only;   for  Monroe  himself  wrote  that  unless  depre- 
ciated assignats  were  accepted,  the  prospect  of  immediate 
payment  was  but  faint.      Nor  was  actual  payment  made 
even  in  assignats. 

Notwithstanding  all  Monroe's  devotion  to  France,  on 
which  point  he  purported  to  speak  for  his  country  as  well 
as  for  himself,  still  the  mission  of  Jay  to  England  fur- 
nished to  the  French  government  cause  of  anxiety  and 
suspicion.  Monroe  had  been  authorized  by  his  instruc- 
tions to  mention,  as  the  "motives"  of  Jay's  mission,  the 
obtaining  "  compensation  for  our  plundered  property  and 
restitution  of  the  posts  ;"  and  also  to  declare  that  Jay 
was  «  positively  forbidden  to  weaken  the  engagements 
between  America  and  France."  Upon  the  strength  of 
these  instructions,  Monroe  undertook  to  assure  the  French 
government  that  Jay's  authority  "  was  strictly  limited 
to  demand  reparation  for  injuries;"  whence  the  implica- 
tion seemed  to  follow  that  he  had  no  authority  to  con- 
clude any  thing  on  the  subject  of  navigation  or  com- 
merce. This  was  venturing  somewhat  rashly,  as  Mon- 
roe very  soon  found  ;  for,  within  two  or  three  weeks  after 
his  giving  these  assurances,  a  report  reached  Paris  that, 
besides  adjusting  the  other  difficulties,  Jay  had  actually 
concluded  a  treaty  of  commerce.  Monroe  at  first  at- 
tempted to  face  down  this  disagreeable  report  by  reiter- 
ating his  statements  as  to  Jay's  instructions,  and  declar- 
ing such  a  treaty  impossible.  Being  soon  formally  called 
upon  by  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  for  informa- 
Dec.  27.  tion,  and  having  that  very  morning  received  a  short  note 
from  Jay  announcing  that  ?.  treaty  had  been  signed,  he 


PROJECT   CF   A    LOAN   TO    FRANCE.  Qfi\ 

was  forced  in  his  answer  to  admit  that  unwelcome  fact.  CHAPTER 
But  he  added  a  reminder  as  to  the  limitation  of  Jay's  in-         ' 
structions,  and  an  extract  also  from  Jay's  letter,  which  1794. 
gave  assurance  of  an  express  clause  in  the  treaty  that 
no  part  of  it   should  operate  contrary   to  any  existing 
treaties.      As  to  its  contents  any  further,  he  disclaimed 
all  knowledge.      Jay  had  written  that,  as  the  treaty  was 
not  ratified,  it  would  be  improper  to  publish  it.      But 
Monroe  promised,  as  soon  as  he  obtained  any  additional 
information,  to  communicate  it  forthwith  to  the  French 
government. 

Monroe  now  began  to  be  alarmed  at  the  encourage- 
ment he  had  given  to  the  French  Committee  of  Safety 
to  expect  a  loan  from  the  United  States.  He  was  aware, 
so  he  wrote  to  the  State  Department,  that  if  the  adjust- 
ment with  Great  Britain  were  approved,  no  such  service 
could  be  rendered  to  France.  Indeed,  if  peace  contin- 
ued, he  doubted  whether  the  government  possessed  the 
constitutional  power  to  render  it.  He  apologized  for  his 
former  course  on  the  ground  of  an  expected  failure  of 
Jay's  negotiation,  which  had,  indeed,  been  suggested  in 
letters  from  Randolph,  and  the  prospect,  as  he  thought, 
of  obtaining  the  aid  of  France,  without  being  obliged  to 
do  much  in  return  for  it.  To  relieve  himself  from  em- 
barrassment, he  called  immediately  upon  those  members 
of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  with  whom  he  had 
communicated  on  the  subject  of  the  loan.  According  to 
the  account  given  in  his  official  letter,  he  found  them 
well  aware  of  the  consequences  cf  the  British  treaty  in 
that  respect,  and  ready  to  give  assurances  that  the  new 
minister  about  to  be  sent  to  America  should  have  in- 
structions not  even  to  mention  the  subject  of  a  loan, 
should  it  be  disagreeable  to  the  American  government. 
f*  So  this  business  stands  upon  a  footing,  as,  indeed,  it 


6(52  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  always  did,  whereby,  under  a  particular  state  of  things 
some  benefit  may  be  derived  from  it,  and  no  detriment 

1794  under  any."  Such  was  Monroe's  confident  conclusion — 
but  never  was  diplomatist  more  lamentably  self-deceived 
The  very  circumstance  that  it  went  to  shut  them  out 
from  the  prospect  of  an  American  loan  of  five  millions 
of  dollars  to  begin  with,  was  quite  enough  to  condemp 
the  treaty  in  the  eyes  of  the  French  ;  and  we  shall  see 
hereafter  with  how  much  pertinacity  they  adhered  to 
that  idea  of  a  loan  in  which  Monroe  had  so  imprudently 
encouraged  them. 

The  danger  of  treaty  arrangements  between  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain  seems  to  have  reminded  the 
French  government  of  the  expediency  of  a  little  respect 
to  treaty  stipulations  on  their  part.  A  new  decree 

1795.  speedily  made  its  appearance,  giving  full  force  and  effect 

Jan.  4.  ^0  £|lose  clauses  of  the  treaty  of  commerce  with  America 
respecting  contraband  and  the  carriage  of  enemy's  goods 
— articles  hitherto  totally  disregarded  ever  since  the 
commencement  of  the  war.  Monroe  was  inclined  to 
take  the  merit  of  this  decree  to  himself,  but  Jay's  title 
to  it  would  seem  quite  as  plausible. 

The  prevalence  of  hostilities  on  the  ocean  had  rendered 
the  communication  between  Europe  and  America  very 
precarious ;  nor  was  it  till  after  he  had  acted  for  six 
months  at  his  own  discretion,  and  had  deeply  committed 
his  government  on  several  important  points,  that  Monroe 

Feb  9.  received  the  first  official  responses  to  his  earlier  letters, 
containing  the  criticisms  already  quoted  as  to  the  parade 
of  his  reception  and  the  interpretation  he  had  given  to 
his  instructions.  To  these  criticisms  Monroe  made  a 
very  elaborate  reply,  in  which  he  vindicated  his  frater- 
nization with  the  French  as  the  only  means  of  prevent- 
ing an  absolute  breach,  which  every  thing  at  the  time 


MONROE'S   APOLOGY    AND    VINDICATION.       QQ% 

i>t  his  arrival  had  seemed  to  portend,  and  as  having  pro-  CHAPTEB 
duced  those  concessions  on  the  part  of  France  of  which  _, 

mention  has  already  been  made.  He  even  took  upon  1795 
himself  the  merit  of  having  contributed  to  the  conclusion 
of  Jay's  treaty,  on  the  ground  that  evidences  of  a  good 
understanding  between  France  and  the  United  States 
must  naturally  have  operated  upon  Great  Britain  to  in- 
duce a  surrender  of  the  Western  posts  and  compensation 
for  injuries,  the  sole  objects,  as  he  presumed,  included  in 
that  treaty.  Independently  of  that  negotiation,  so  he 
insisted  in  this  same  letter,  by  his  adroitness  and  suc- 
cess in  obtaining  the  confidence  of  the  French  republic, 
he  had  secured  all  that  the  United  States  could  desire. 
By  "  accurate  penetration"  into  the  "  probable  policy" 
of  the  French  government — a  government  subject  to  pe- 
riodical revolutions  at  intervals  of  a  few  months,  in  which 
its  policy  as  well  as  its  administration  underwent  decided 
changes — he  had.  become  satisfied  that,  in  case  we  main- 
tained that  government's  unimpaired  confidence,  "there 
was  no  service  within  its  power  which  it  would  not  ren- 
der us,  and  that  upon  the  slightest  intimation."  He 
had  "  reason  to  believe"  that,  previously  to  the  arrival 
of  the  news  of  Jay's  treaty,  the  French  government 
"  contemplated  to  take  under  its  care  our  protection 
against  Algiers,  the  expulsion  of  the  British  from  the 
Western  posts,  and  the  establishment  of  our  right  to  the 
free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  to  be  secured  to  us  in 
the  mode  we  should  prefer  ;"  for  all  which  services,  the 
only  return  expected  was  "  the  aid  of  our  credit  to  ob- 
tain a  loan  from  our  banks  for  an  inconsiderable  sum, 
to  be  laid  out  in  the  purchase  of  provisions  within  our 
own  country,  and  to  be  reimbursed,  if  possible,  by  them- 
selves." The  news  of  Jay's  treaty  had  "  checked"  these 
beneficent  intentions,  but  had  not  entirely  "  changed" 


6(54  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  them  ;  and  Monroe  still  thought,  should  that  treaty  fail  to 
be  ratified,  or  should  Pinckney's  negotiation  with  Spain 
1795.  not  succeed,  that  it  was  yet  possible  to  accomplish  the 
whole  through  the  means  of  the  French  government, 
upon  terms  which  "  perhaps"  would  require  no  offensive 
movement,  or  any  act  which  could  rightly  subject  us  to 
the  imputation  ol  a  breach  of  neutrality. 

While  thus  again  pressing  his  favorite  scheme  of 
throwing  the  United  States  unreservedly  into  the  arm? 
of  France,  and  intrusting  the  settlement  of  all  our  ex- 
ternal difficulties  to  her  fraternal  care,  Monroe  was* 
engaged  in  a  curious  correspondence  with  Jay  on  the 
subject  of  the  British  treaty  and  its  communication  to 
the  French  government.  Shortly  after  his  first  note, 
announcing  the  signature  of  the  treaty,  Jay  had  again 
written  to  Monroe,  promising  to  make  to  him  a  confi- 
dential communication,  in  cipher,  of  its  principal  heads. 
Having  mislaid  the  key  of  the  cipher,  Monroe  sent  £ 
Mr.  Purviance,  a  confidential  person,  to  Jay  at  London, 
to  receive  such  oral  or  written  communication  as  he 
might  see  fit  to  make,  it  being,  according  to  Monroe's 
letter,  of  great  consequence  to  American  affairs  at  Paris 
to  remove  all  doubts  on  the  part  of  that  government  as 
to  the  contents  of  the  treaty.  Nothing,  indeed,  would 
satisfy,  he  added,  but  a  copy  of  the  entire  treaty,  to 
which  "  our  ally"  thought  itself  entitled. 

While  civilly  declining  to  send  a  copy  of  the  treaty, 
or  to  make  any  communication  of  its  contents  except 
teb.  5.  confidentially,  Jay  took  the  occasion  to  read  Monroe  a 
much-needed  lecture  on  national  independence  and  the 
duty  of  ministers.  "  You  must  be  sensible,"  so  he 
wrote,  "  that  the  United  States,  as  a  free  and  independ- 
ent nation,  have  an  unquestionable  right  to  make  any 
pacific  arrangements  with  other  powers  which  mutual 


MONROE'S    CORRESPONDENCE   WITH    TA"S        fi  ^  o 

Convenience  may  dictate,  provided  those  arrangements  OHAPTI-B 

do  not  contradict  or  oppugn  their  prior  engagements  with 

other  states."  Upon  this  point,  the  only  one  as  to  which  1795 
France  could  have  any  rights,  explicit  assurances  had 
already  been  given,  to  which  Jay  now  added  a  verbal 
extract  from  the  treaty,  saving  all  privileges  granted  by 
prior  treaties  to  other  states.  "  It  does  not  belong," 
added  Jay,  "  to  ministers  who  negotiate  treaties  to  pub- 
lish them,  even  when  perfected,  much  less  treaties  not 
yet  completed,  and  remaining  open  to  alteration  or  rejec- 
tion. Such  acts  belong  exclusively  to  the  governments 
which  form  them.  I  can  not  but  flatter  myself  that  the 
French  government  is  too  enlightened  and  reasonable  to 
expect  that  any  consideration  ought  to  induce  me  to 
overleap  the  bounds  of  my  authority,  or  to  be  negligent 
of  the  respect  which  is  due  to  the  United  States.  That 
respect,  and  my  obligations  to  preserve  it,  will  not  permit 
me  to  give,  without  the  permission  of  my  government,  a 
copy  of  the  instrument  in  question  to  any  person  or  for 
any  purpose  ;  and  by  no  means  for  the  purpose  of  being 
submitted  to  the  consideration  and  judgment  of  the  coun- 
cils of  a  foreign  nation,  however  friendly." 

By  a  minister  sincerely  desirous  to  sustain  the  neutral 
policy  of  his  government — capable  also  of  the  idea,  to 
attain  to  which  would  not  seern  to  require  any  great 
knowledge  of  the  world  or  diplomatic  experience,  that 
the  French,  however  friendly  to  the  United  States,  might 
still,  as  enemies  of  England,  have  purposes  of  their  own 
to  serve- — a  knowledge  of  the  contents  of  the  British 
treaty  might  have  been  very  beneficially  employed  in 
preparing  the  French  government,  as  opportunity  offered, 
for  those  clauses  likely  to  be  least  palatable,  as  tending 
to  place  the  two  belligerents  on  an  equal  footing.  The 
communication  originally  proposed  by  Jay  was  no  doubt 


666  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  intended  for  such  a  purpose.      That  Monroe  might  have 

no  ground  of  complaint,  Jay  soon  afterward  authorized 

1.7tt5.  Jshn  Trurnbull,  the  painter,  who  had  acted  as  his  sec- 
retary of  legation,  and  who  was  about  to  pass  through 
Paris  on  his  way  to  Strasburg,  where  one  of  his  great 
Revolutionary  paintings  was  under  the  hands  of  the  en- 
graver, to  make  a  confidential  communication  to  Monroe, 
«uch  as  had  been  originally  promised.  But  this  com- 
munication Monrob  refused  to  receive,  or  any  other  which 
he  was  not  at  full  liberty  to  lay  at  once  before  the  French 
government.  Thus  repulsed,  Trumbull  communicated 
to  an  American  merchant  at  Paris,  with  intent  that  he 
should  transmit  it  to  Monroe,  a  slight  sketch  of  the  pro- 
visions of  the  treaty,  which  Monroe,  as  soon  as  he  re- 
March,  ceived  it,  hastened  to  convey  to  the  Committee  of  Safety. 
Baffled  by  the  wise  caution  of  Jay,  Monroe  and  the 
French  government  were  obligee}  to  wait  the  publication 
of  the  treaty  in  regular  course,  not,  however,  without 
an  attempt  to  obtain  a  copy  of  it  from  Thomas  Pinck- 
May.  ney,  who  passed  through  Paris  on  his  way  to  Spain,  and 
upon  whom  Monroe  urged  the  furnishing  the  French 
government  with  a  copy  as  a  means  of  securing  their 
countenance  and  aid  in  his  Spanish  negotiation.  But 
Pinckney  could  not  be  thus  induced  to  a  breach  of  Jay's 
confidence  and  a  disregard  of  the  duty  which  he  owed  to 
his  own  government. 

As  soon  as  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  had  Ad- 
vised the  ratification  of  the  treaty,  but  before  the  prec_. 
dent  had  decided  upon  it,  or  the  treaty  itself  had  been 
June  20  made  public,  a  copy  had  been  communicated  to  Adet,  the 
newly-arrived  French  minister,  the  special  representa- 
tive of  the  party  then  in  power  in  France,  for  his  obser- 
vations. Adet  complained  of  the  seizure  of  enemy's 
goods  in  American  vessels,  recognized  in  the  treaty,  as  a 


ADET'S    STRICTURES   ON   JAY'S    TREATY.        667 

belligerent  right,  and  of  the  list   of  contraband  articles  CHAPTEH 

agreed  to,  as  granting  to  England  rights  which  France _ 

had  not  ;  also  of  the  hospitality  stipulated  for  British  1795 
ships  of  war,  as  inconsistent  with  the  restrictions  upon 
the  enemies  of  France  contained  in  the  French  treaty. 
He  also  urged  that  the  stipulation  to  make  no  new  treat- 
ies inconsistent  with  the  privileges  granted  to  Great  Brit- 
ain would  prevent  the  negotiation  of  a  new  commercial 
treaty  with  France,  as  she  would  hardly  be  disposed  to  re- 
linquish the  privileges  which  she  now  enjoyed.  In  reply 
to  these  objections,  Randolph  insisted  that,  in  recogniz- 
ing what  Great  Britain  claimed  as  her  rights,  long  ex- 
ercised under  the  law  of  nations,  the  United  States  could 
not  be  said  to  grant  her  any  thing  to  the  disadvantage 
of  France.  If,  by  a  treaty  relinquishment  of  similar 
rights,  France  had  placed  herself  at  a  disadvantage,  she 
had  doubtless  considered  of  that  before  entering  into  the 
engagement,  and  had  found  indemnification  for  it,  among 
other  things,  in  the  counter-stipulation  of  a  right  to  make 
prize  of  American  goods  found  on  board  enemy  ves- 
sels, a  privilege  which,  under  the  law  of  nations,  she  did 
not  possess.  The  other  two  objections  were  disposed  of 
as  mistakes  of  construction.  France  was  expressly  se- 
cured in  all  the  privileges  she  at  present  enjoyed  ;  and, 
in  case  of  a  new  treaty,  she  might  still  retain  these  privi- 
leges by  leaving  the  existing  treaty  so  far  in  force. 
These  explanations  seemed  for  the  moment  satisfactory 
to  Adet ;  at  least,  he  made  no  immediate  reply  to  them. 
Meanwhile,  the  renewal  of  the  British  provision  or- 
der increased  the  anxiety  of  the  French  government  on 
the  subject  of  the  British  treaty.  That  order  threat- 
ened to  prove  a  serious  obstruction  to  the  supply  of 
American  provisions,  of  which,  at  that  moment,  Franca 
stood  greatly  in  need.  The  hope  of  suoh  supplies  had, 


668  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  indeed,  been  a  leading  motive  for  the  decree  abolishing 

the  monopoly  of  all  importations,  and  again  opening  for- 

1795.  eign  commerce  to  individual  enterprise  ;  and  Monroe  had 
done  his  best  to  promote  this  object,  by  reiterated  assur- 
ances of  the  vast  profits  to  be  made  by  Americans  wh< 
might  again  adventure  in  French  trade.  All  doubts  as 
to  the  treaty  were,  however,  soon  removed  by  the  arri 
Aug,  val  of  American  newspapers,  in  which  it  was  printed  at 
length.  But  the  change  in  the  government,  which  was 
then  brewing,  and  the  expectation  that  the  president 
might  yet  be  frightened  by  the  outcries  of  the  French 
party  in  America  into  a  rejection  of  the  treaty,  kept  the 
French  government  for  some  time  quiet. 

Monroe,  meanwhile,  begun  to  feel  the  awkward  pre- 
dicament in  which  he  had  placed  himself.  That  the  ad- 
ministration had  injured  him  was  a  point  upon  which 
he  had  no  doubt ;  so  he  states  in  a  defense  of  himself 
which  he  published  after  his  return,  and  in  which  all  the 
papers  connected  with  his  mission  are  given  at  length. 
The  injury  consisted,  it  is  to  be  presumed,  in  having 
continued  to  persevere  in  their  own  policy,  and  in  not 
having  come  over  to  his ;  for  Monroe  seems  to  have 
taken  it  for  granted  that,  in  appointing  him  minister  to 
France,  the  government  had  virtually  made  over  to  his 
good  discretion  all  their  relations,  not  with  that  country 
only,  but  with  Great  Britain  also.  That  the  govern- 
ment had  compromised  their  own  credit  and  that  of  the 
United  States  in  not  standing  up  to  Monroe's  unauthor- 
ized commitments  to  France,  was  equally  clear  to  his 
mind,  Under  such  circumstances,  it  was  a  natural  and 
obvious  idea  at  once  to  resign.  But  Monroe  had  the  in- 
terests of  his  country  to  defend  as  well  as  his  own  hon- 
or, and  before  taking  that  step — so,  at  least,  he  repre- 
sents the  matter  in  his  book — he  put  to  himself  this 


MONROE'S    DETERMINATION   TO    REMAIN.       (559 

question,  "  What  was  my  object  in  accepting  the  mission  CHAP-IE n 

to  the  French  republic,  and  how,  under  existing  circum- 

dances,  can  that  object  best  be  promoted?"  Undoubt-  1795. 
^dly  Monroe's  object  in  accepting  the  mission  had  been, 
as  proved  by  his  whole  career  in  it,  to  thwart  the  policy 
of  the  administration  in  sending  Jay  to  London,  and  to 
force  them,  whether  they  would  or  not,  into  the  embrace 
of  France,  if  not  into  war  with  Great. Britain.  In  that 
policy  he  still  resolved  to  persevere,  "  notwithstanding 
any  personal  embarrassments  to  himself,"  hoping,  no 
doubt,  that  the  outcry  raised  against  the  treaty  might 
yet  defeat  it,  and  thus  make  room  for  his  favorite  scheme 
of  subsidizing  the  aid  of  France.  Meanwhile,  his  con- 
tinued residence  at  Paris,  and  intimate  personal  relations 
with  the  members  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety, 
might  prevent  any  premature  steps  on  their  part  by 
which  "the  harmony  of  the  two  nations  might  be  en- 
dangered." He  also  preferred  to  put  the  government  to 
the  necessity  of  recalling  him,  did  they  dare  to  do  it,  "as 
the  means  of  furnishing  to  the  world  a  new  datum  for 
estimating  their  policy  ;"  and  because  it  would  leave  him 
"  completely  at  liberty  to  explain,  in  every  particular, 
the  motives  of  his  own  conduct." 

The  conclusion  of  a  treaty  with  Algiers  independently 
of  French  intervention,  and  the  successful  result  of  the 
Spanish  negotiation,  had  diminished  the  occasions  for 
French  assistance.  But  in  the  hope  that  Jay's  treaty 
might  yet  be  rejected,  Monroe  again  held  out  the  pros- 
pect of  French  co-operation.  He  was  still  of  opinion  Sept.  lei 
that,  if  "  a  timely  and  suitable  attempt"  were  made  to 
engage  the  support  of  the  French  government,  it  might 
yet  be  accomplished  upon  "  fair  and  honorable  terms." 
But,  to  bring  about  this  result,  peculiar  and  extraordi- 
nary care  would  be  necessary.  The  person  employed 


(-',70  HISTORY   OP    THE    UNITED    STATED 

CHAPTER  must  possess  the  "  confidence"  of  the  French  govern- 
_____  rnent,  and  the  negDtiation  ought  to  be  carried  on  at  the 
1795.  same  place  with  that  for  the  general  peace,  either  at 
Paris  or  at  Basle,  where  the  English  were  said  to  have 
an  agent  for  that  purpose.  Something  more  than  a 
mere  loan  would  now  be  required.  "  To  secure  success 
by  embarking  this  government  with  full  zeal  in  our  be- 
half, and  striking  terror  into  England,  it  will  be  neces- 
sary," he  wrote,  "  to  lay  hold  of  her  property  within 
the  United  States,  to  take  the  posts,  and  even  to  invade 
Canada.  This  would  not  only  secure  to  us  completely 
our  claims  upon  Great  Britain,  and  especially  if  we  cut 
up  her  trade  by  privateers,  but,  by  making  a  decisive 
and  powerful  diversion  in  favor  of  PVance,  promote,  and 
very  essentially,  a  general  peace."  It  would  be  hard  to 
say  from  this  letter,  and,  indeed,  from  the  general  tenor 
of  Monroe's  diplomatic  correspondence,  whether  "  the 
diversion  in  favor  of  France"  did  not  lay  quite  as  near 
his  heart  as  any  of  the  interests  specially  intrusted  to 
his  official  charge. 

Immediately  after  the  advice  of  the  Senate  to  ratify 
the  treaty,  Randolph  had  written  a  long  dispatch  review- 
ing the  relations  between  America  and  France,  explod- 
ing anew  Monroe's  extraordinary  interpretation  of  his 
instructions,  and  vindicating  the  honor  and  consistency 
of  the  government  in  the  matter  of  Jay's  negotiation. 
The  immediate  occasion  of  this  letter  is  stated  to  be 
"information  that  the  French  minister  was  concerting 
an  attack  on  the  ratification  of  the  treaty,"  and  that 
sentiments  "  no  less  eccentric  than  fatal  to  our  inde- 
pendence were  to  be  scattered  at  random  from  a  confi- 
dence in  the  popularity  of  the  French  cause."  This 
dispatch,  which  experienced  great  detention,  the  vessel 
which  bore  it  being  carried  into  England  under  the  pro- 


JUSTIFICATION  OF   JAY'S   TREATY.  ^71 

vision  order,  reached  France  not  long  before  the  arrival  CIIAPTEJB 

IX 

of  Fanchet,  who  came  home  overcharged  with  indigna- L_ 

tion,  and  who  was  warmly  received  by  his  own  govern-  1795 
ment.  That  government  was  now  the  famous  Direct- 
ory under  the  Constitution  of  the  year  Three,  whose  au- 
thority had  lately  been  confirmed  by  the  cannonade  by 
which  Bonaparte  had  swept  away  the  insurgent  sections 
— a  government  in  which  Monroe  expressed  great  confi- 
dence, so  distinguished  were  the  Directors  for  "  their  tal- 
ents, integrity,  and  devotion  to  the  Revolution." 

Randolph's  dispatch  above  quoted  was  accompanied, 
or  soon  followed,  by  two  or  three  short  letters,  in  which 
he  spoke  of  the  ratification  as  still  doubtful,  and  which 
seem  to  have  revived  Monroe's  hopes ;  but  about  a 
month  after  the  inauguration  of  the  new  French  govern- 
ment came  a  letter  from  Pickering,  formally  announcing  Dec,  l 
the  ratification  of  the  treaty.  As  it  appeared  probable, 
from  Monroe's  own  letters  and  from  the  movements  of 
certain  persons  in  the  United  States,  that  unfavorable 
impressions  might  be  attempted  in  France,  a  full  state- 
ment was  given  in  this  letter  of  the  grounds  on  which 
the  negotiation  and  the  treaty  were  to  be  justified. 
France  had  been  kept  as  fully  informed  of  the  objects 
and  progress  of  the  negotiation  as  the  rules  prescribed 
by  custom  in  such  cases  would  justify  or  permit.  All 
her  rights,  whether  founded  on  the  law  of  nations  or  on 
her  treaties  with  the  United  States,  remained  unim- 
paired. As  related  to  the  article  respecting  contraband 
goods,  it  was  undoubtedly  the  interest  of  the  United 
Spates  to  diminish  the  list  of  contraband  as  much  as 
possible;  but  a  time  of  war  was  very  unfavorable  for 
that  purpose,  especially  in  a  case  like  the  present, 
where  the  object  was  to  induce  a  powerful  maritime 
nation  to  make  concessions  in  favor  of  a  neutral  and  de- 


(572  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTES    fenseless  commerce.      Though  the  first  clause  of  the  ar- 

[ ,    side  on  this  subject  embraced  several  kinds  of  merchan- 

1  79,r.  flise,  such,  for  instance,  as  naval  stores,  which  the  policy 
of  modern  times  had  admitted  by  special  treaties  into 
the  list  of  free  goods,  it  did  not,  however,  include  a  sin- 
gle article  not  recognized  as  contraband  by  approved 
writers  on  the  law  of  nations.  The  United  States  had 
not  relinquished  any  neutral  rights,  the  exercise  of  which 
would  have  been  beneficial  to  France.  The  treaty  barely 
recited  in  its  list  of  contraband  what  was  before  so  un- 
der a  law  which  the  United  States  could  not  mitigate  ; 
and,  however  desirous  they  might  be  that  the  rigor  of 
that  law  should  be  relaxed,  yet  a  recital  of  it  in  the 
treaty  was  the  best  that  could  be  done,  and  was  neces- 
sary in  order  to  admonish  their  maritime  and  commercial 
citizens  of  a  risk  which  really  existed.  The  clause  se- 
curing compensation  for  goods  not  generally  contraband, 
but  seized  as  such  under  particular  circumstances,  did 
not  admit  that  provisions  were  ever  properly  contraband, 
unless  destined  for  places  invested  or  blockaded.  It  only 
guarded,  by  the  best  means  in  the  power  of  the  Ameri- 
can government,  against  the  effect  of  the  British  doctrine 
on  that  subject,  which  had  been  and  would  be  strenu- 
ously opposed  by  all  reasonable  means  that  might  offer. 
The  renewal  of  the  provision  order  did  not  grow  out  of 
that  article,  for  it  included  all  neutral  nations  alike  ;  and 
a  similar  order  had  been  issued  before  the  treaty  existed 
The  article  was  expedient  for  the  United  States,  in  order 
that  their  commerce  might  not  be  left  exposed  to  future 
spoliations  without  any  definite  provision  for  liquidation 
and  redress.  Nor  was  the  operation  of  it  injurious  to 
France,  since  it  would  tend  to  encourage  enterprises  to 
supply  her  with  provisions,  those  engaged  in  that  com- 
merce being  secured  by  it  against  loss  even  in  case  of  cap. 
tare  by  the  British. 


JUSTIFICATION    OF   JAY'S   TREATY.  (J  7  3 

The  renewal  of  the  provision  order,  as  it  had  been  the  CHAPTER 

ground  on  which  Randolph  had  opposed  the  ratification, 

was  much  dwelt  upon  in  this  dispatch.     But  that  objec-  1795. 
tion  was  presently  removed  out  of  the  way,  the  British 
government  having  been  induced,  by  the  remonstrances 
which  had  accompanied  the  ratification  of  the  treaty,  to 
recall  that  order. 

Pickering's  letter  went  on  to  urge,  that  whether  this 
pretension  or  any  other  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain 
was  of  such  a  nature  that  it  ought  to  be  resisted  by  force, 
was  a  question  which  it  pertained  to  the  government  of 
the  United  States  alone  to  decide.  They  were  the  ex- 
clusive and  competent  judges  of  what  concerned  their 
interests,  policy,  and  honor,  and  on  those  points  would 
never  ask  the  advice  nor  be  governed  by  the  counsels 
of  any  foreign  nation.  Having  attained  the  possession 
of  a  free  and  happy  government,  and  having  nothing 
left  of  internal  enjoyments  to  hope  or  desire,  solicitude 
was  principally  directed  to  the  depredations  committed 
on  their  commerce.  These  were  great,  and  were  inflict- 
ed by  all  parties  to  the  contest ;  but  commerce,  notwith- 
standing, was  lucrative  and  extensive,  though,  since  the 
country  had  no  means  of  protecting  it,  vulnerable  in  pro- 
portion to  its  extent. 

The  degree  of  security  actually  enjoyed  was  well 
known  to  depend  more  upon  the  common  wants  of  the 
nations  at  war  than  upon  any  exertions  of  an  offensive 
nature  which  could  immediately  be  made  by  the  United 
States.  Indeed,  nothing  of  that  kind  could  be  attempt- 
ed as  against  Great  Britain  without  a  total  sacrifice  of 
commerce.  Would  it  not  be  a  preposterous  policy  to 
destroy  the  very  object  for  the  preservation  of  which  it 
was  proposed  to  commence  hostilities ! 

The  real  operation  of  a  war  with  England  might  be 
IV.— II  u 


674  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITE  INSTATES 

CHAPTER  judged  of  by  the  experience  of  the  two  last  years  of  the 

Revolutionary  war.      A  striking  defect  in  the   British 

1795.  naval  arrangements  in  preceding  years  had  left  the 
American  ports  open  for  the  entry  of  commerce^  for  the 
equipping  of  privateers,  and  the  introduction  of  prizes. 
A  different  arrangement  in  the  latter  period  of  that  war 
totally  changed  the  scene.  The  larger  privateers  were 
taken  ;  the  small  privateers  were  hauled  up,  as  no  longer 
able  to  cope  even  with  armed  merchantmen.  The  mer- 
cantile shipping  of  the  United  States  fell,  at  the  same 
time,  a  sacrifice  to  the  vigilant  operations  of  the  British 
navy.  At  the  present  moment,  the  naval  power  of 
England  was  greater  than  ever.  She  had  the  command 
of  the  sea,  and  was  likely  to  keep  it.  American  com- 
merce might  be  annihilated  in  a  single  year,  and  thou- 
sands of  seamen  be  shut  up  to  die  in  jails  and  prison- 
ships.  With  the  cessation  of  commerce,  agriculture, 
above  the  supply  of  domestic  wants,  would  be  suspend- 
ed, or  its  produce  would  perish  on  the  hands  of  the  pro- 
ducers. The  sources  of  revenue  failing,  public  credit 
would  be  destroyed.  The  people  at  large  would  be 
plunged  from  the  summit  of  prosperity  into  an  abyss  of 
misery — a  misery,  too,  sudden,  and  too  severe  to  be  pa- 
tiently borne.  To  increase  their  calamities,  or  to  make 
them  the  more  sensibly  felt,  direct  taxes  must  be  levied 
to  support  the  war,  and  happy  would  it  be  if  to  all  these 
calamities  internal  dissensions  were  not  added.  Such  a 
war  would  be  injurious  even  to  France.  It  would  put 
an  end  to  American  commerce,  and  by  commerce  only 
could  America  give  her  any  valuable  aid.  A  fruitless 
diversion  on  the  side  of  Canada  would  nearly  bound  oui 
efforts. 

Monroe,  in  his  book,  alluded  with  scorn  to  these  al- 
leged consequences  of  a  war  with  Great  Britain,  particu 


JUSTIFICATION   OF  JA^'S   TREATY.  57^ 

larlv  to  the  "  fruitless  diversion  on  the  side  of  Canada."  CHAPTER 

*  ix. 
Twenty  years  after,  he  might  have  seen  in  what  had      f      . 

then  just  passed   before   his  eyes  a  remarkable  fulfill-  1705. 
ment  of  all  Pickering's  prognostications,  and  unquestion- 
able proof  how  much  sounder  than  his  and  that  of  his 
political  associates  was  the  judgment  of  Washington's 
cabinet. 

After  the  above  statement  of  the  grounds  on  which 
the  policy  of  the  American  government  in  entering  into 
the  treaty  with  Great  Britain  had  been  founded  and  was 
to  be  defended,  Monroe  was  specially  instructed  to  urge 
that  the  late  negotiation  had  not  proceeded  from  any 
predilection  toward  England.  There  were  many  causes 
of  difference  with  that  nation,  especially  the  detention 
of  the  Western  posts,  that  admitted  of  no  longer  delay, 
while  the  remembrance  of  a  long,  bloody,  and  distress- 
ing war,  from  which  the  nation  was  but  just  beginning 
to  recover,  was  enough  to  cause  the  possible  renewal 
of  it  to  be  most  seriously  deprecated.  The  commercial 
articles,  though  not  unimportant,  were,  however,  a  sub- 
ordinate object,  but  still  not  a  new  one,  having  been  re- 
peatedly urged  upon  the  government,  and  measures  hav- 
ing been  powerfully  supported  in  Congress,  of  which  the 
sole  object  was  to  force  Great  Britain  into  a  commercial 
treaty.  Monroe  was  to  insist  upon  the  friendly  disposi- 
tion of  the  American  government  toward  France ;  but, 
as  there  was  no  probability  that  the  United  States  would 
become  in  any  way  a  party  to  the  existing  war,  he  was 
carefully  to  avoid  any  thing  which  might  raise  such  an 
expectation  in  the  mind  of  the  French  government. 

The  task  imposed  upon  Monroe  by  this  letter  could 
not  but  be  exceedingly  distasteful.  Not  only  were  the 
views  he  was  thus  instructed  to  urge  in  every  respect 
counter  to  his  own,  but  he  stood  personally  in  a  very 


£76  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  delicate  position,  liable  to  be  suspected  by  the  Frencl 
_____  government    of  haying   been   voluntarily  or    ignorantly 

1795.  used,  while  the  English  negotiation  had  been  in  progress, 
to  throw  dust  in  their  eyes.      Moreover,  he  was  not  with- 
out his  hopes,  in  which,  no  doubt,  his  Virginia  correspond- 
ents encouraged  him,  that  the  treaty  might  yet  be  de- 
feated by  the  House  of  Representatives.      Under  these 
circumstances,  he  adopted  the  policy  of  saying  nothing,  a 
policy  which  he  defended  on  the  ground  that  it  was  best 
to  leave  it  to  the  French  government  to  state  their  com- 
plaints before  he   attempted  to  obviate  them.      So  the 
matter  rested  for  two  months  or  more,  when  De  la  Croix, 
the  French  minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  took  occasion  to 

1796.  inform  Monroe  that,  since  the  ratification  of  Jay's  treaty, 
Feb.  15.  j-ne  Directory  regarded  the  alliance  between  France  and 

America  at  an  end  ;  that  Adet  was  to  return,  and  a 
special  minister  was  to  be  sent  out  to  make  this  an- 
nouncement to  the  American  government.  Monroe  re- 
monstrated against  this  course,  as  likely  to  place  the  two 
March  8.  republics  in  a  hostile  position,  and,  in  a  special  interview 
with  the  Directory,  professed  his  readiness  to  answer  all 
such  objections  as  might  be  urged  against  the  treaty. 
In  consequence  of  this  interview,  Monroe  was  furnished 
with  a  paper,  signed  by  De  la  Croix,  apparently  a  report 
to  the  Directory  on  the  subject  of  American  relations. 
It  charged  the  United  States  with  the  non-execution  of 
treaty  obligations  in  five  particulars  :  taking  cognizance 
of  the  legality  of  French  captures  in  case  of  prizes  car- 
ried into  American  ports  ;  admitting  into  American  har- 
bors English  ships  of  war  which  had  made  prize  of  French 
vessels  ;  refusing  to  enforce  the  judgments  which  French 
consuls  were  authorized  by  the  Consular  Convention  tc 
render  in  all  cases  between  French  citizens  ;  requiring 
for  the  legal  arrest  of  deserters  from  French  ve?sels  the 


FRENCH    OBJECTIONS    TO   JAY'S    TREATY.       (,77 
presentation  in  court  of  the  original  register  of  equipage  CHAPTER 

IjL. 

or  shipping  paper,  notwithstanding  the  provision  in  an-  • 
other  article  of  the  Consular  Convention  that  all  faith  1796. 
should  be  given  to  consular  copies ;  lastly,  the  seizure 
at  Philadelphia  of  the  French  national  corvette,  the  Cas- 
sius,  for  acts  done  on  the  high  seas.  Two  other  heads 
of  complaint  were  added  :  first,  the  omission  properly  to 
resent  the  insult  of  the  late  attempted  seizure  of  Fau- 
shet,  and  the  search  of  his  baggage  by  a  British  ship  of 
war  within  the  waters  of  the  United  States;  and,  sec- 
ondly, the  extension  given  by  the  treaty  with  Great  Brit- 
ain to  the  list  of  contraband,  so  that  even  provisions  were 
included  in  it — an  abandonment  of  the  independence  of 
their  commerce  inconsistent  with  the  neutrality  of  the 
United  States,  and  with  their  obligations  to  defend  the 
colonial  possessions  of  France. 

To  these  several  charges  Monroe  made  a  brief  reply. 
The  cognizance  claimed  of  French  prizes  was  only  in 
case  of  captures  within  the  waters  of  the  United  States, 
or  by  vessels  fitted  out  within  those  waters — cases  which 
must,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be  excepted  from  the  gen- 
eral terms  of  the  treaty.  The  treaty  prohibited  the  ad- 
mission into  American  ports  of  armed  vessels  belonging 
to  the  enemies  of  France  having  prizes  with  them,  a 
stipulation  fulfilled  as  far  as  the  limited  means  of  the 
United  States  would  admit,  but  which  was  not  under- 
stood to  extend  to  the  exclusion  of  British  ships  of  war, 
merely  because  at  some  former  time  they  had  made  prize 
of  French  vessels.  An  answer  as  to  the  alleged  breaches 
of  the  Consular  Convention  was  promised  when  the  cases 
should  be  more  specifically  stated.  Though  Monroe  prob- 
ably did  not  know  it,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  had  decided  that  the  jurisdiction  provided  for  by 
whe  Consular  Convention  was  only  in  the  nature  of  aa 


078  HIS'IORV   OF  THE    UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPTER  arbitration,  and  that  the  French  consuls  were  not  en- 
r',     titled  to  expect  the  assistance  of  the  United  States  in 

1796.  enforcing  their  decrees.  As  to  the  corvette  Cassius,  she 
had  been  seized  on  the  charge  of  having  been  fitted  out 
at  Philadelphia.  The  insult  to  Fauchet  had  been  pun- 
ished  as  far  as  could  be  done  by  a  nation  having  no  fleet 
— the  guilty  vessel  had  been  ordered  away,  and  com- 
plaint had  been  made  to  the  British  government.  As  to 
the  provisions  of  the  British  treaty  on  the  subject  of  con- 
traband, the  arguments  which  Pickering  had  suggested 
were  briefly  urged. 

No  reply  was  made  to  this  paper,  nor  was  the  matter 
further  pressed  by  Monroe.  Both  parties,  no  doubt,  were 
waiting  for  the  rejection  of  the  treaty  by  the  House  of 
Representatives.  Instead  of  this,  news  presently  arrived 
Jaae  26.  that  the  appropriations  for  the  treaty  had  passed.  De 
la  Croix  immediately  wrote  to  Monroe  to  inquire  if  this 
information  could  be  relied  upon.  Monroe  replied  that 
he  knew  no  more  than  was  stated  in  the  newspapers, 
but  at  the  same  time  expressed  his  readiness  to  answer 
any  further  objections  to  the  treaty. 

Joly.  7.  Another  note  from  De  la  Croix,  reiterating  the  dissat- 
isfaction of  the  Directory,  announced  that  they  no  longer 
considered  themselves  bound  by  the  provisions  as  to  neu- 
tral rights  in  their  treaty  with  the  United  States.  In 

July  &  fact,  an  order  had  already  issued — though  no  official  no- 
tice of  it  had  been  given  to  Monroe,  to  whom,  indeed,  its 
existence  was  even  denied — authorizing  the  ships  of  war 
of  the  Republic  to  treat  neutral  vessels  in  the  same 
manner  in  which  they  suffered  themselves  to  be  treated 
by  the  English,  thus  again  setting  aside  the  stipulations 
of  the  treaty  with  America  as  to  contraband  and  the 
carriage  of  enemy's  goods. 

In  his  answer  to  De  la  Croix's  noto,  Monroe  ventured 


KECALL   OF   MONROE.  679 

to  remind  him  that  the  United  States  had  also  grounds  CHAPTER 

IX. 

of  complaint.     That  under  a  decree  of  the  Convention  in _ 

1793,  in  violation  of  the  American  treaty,  fifty  Ameri-  1796. 
can  vessels  had  been  brought  into  French  ports,  and  their 
cargoes  taken  from  them,  for  which  no  payment  had  yet 
been  made.  That  about  the  same  time,  and  without 
any  motive  having  ever  been  assigned  for  it,  more  than 
eighty  other  American  vessels  had  been  embargoed  at 
Bordeaux,  and  detained  there  for  upward  of  a  year,  to 
the  great  injury  of  the  owners,  who  remained  as  yet  un- 
compensated.  That  for  supplies  furnished  to  the  French 
West  Indies,  and  likewise  for  supplies  sent  directly  to 
France,  immense  sums  were  due  to  American  citizens, 
by  the  non-payment  of  which  many  were  ruined.  He 
softened  matters,  indeed,  by  suggesting  that  these 
grounds  of  complaint  were  perhaps  unknown  to  the  Di- 
rectory, as  the  original  representations  had  been  made 
to  their  predecessors.  But  a  tone  so  wholly  new  on  his 
part  contributed,  perhaps,  to  that  slight  and  neglect  with 
which  thenceforward  he  began  to  be  treated. 

At  the  same  moment  that  Monroe  fell  into  disgrace 
at  Paris,  having  wholly  failed  to  bring  about  that  close 
union  with  France  of  which  he  had  held  out  the  prom- 
ise, the  resolution  had  been  taken  at  home  to  supply  his 
place  bv  a  minister  in  whose  zeal  to  carry  out  their 
views,  and  in  whose  faithfal  co-operation  in  their  policy, 
the  government  could  place  more  certain  trust.  After 
being  declined  by  Marshall  for  pressing  domestic  reasons, 
this  appointment  was  accepted  by  Charles  C.  Pinckney, 
who  presently  embarked,  carrying  with  him  Monroe's  let- 
ters of  recall.  In  making  this  appointment,  Washing- 
ton had  been  anxious  to  find  a  minister  to  whose  politi- 
cal opinions  the  French  could  have  no  special  objections, 
at  the  same  time  that  he  selected  a  person  on  whom  ho 
could  himself  confidently  rely. 


680  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER       Washington  at  first  had  suggested  the  idea  of  sending 

, 1 out  a  minister  extraordinary,  as  in  the  case  of  Jay's  ap- 

1796.  pointrnent  to  England;  but  the  cabinet  were  of  opinion 
that,  in  the  recess  of  the  Senate,  he  had  no  power  to 
make  such  an  appointment.  They  all  agreed  in  the 
policy  of  recalling  Monroe,  in  order  that  the  government 
might  have  some  faithful  organ  at  Paris  to  explain  their 
views,  and  to  ascertain  those  of  the  French.  There 
was,  indeed,  evidence  before  them  that  while  Monroe's 
recent  correspondence  with  the  State  Department  had 
been  unfrequent,  unsatisfactory,  reserved,  and  without 
cordiality  or  confidence,  he  had  been  in  close  commu- 
nication with  the  heads  of  the  opposition — of  which,  in 
fact,  he  had  all  along  been  more  the  agent  than  of  the 
administration  which  he  professed  to  represent. 

Meanwhile,  in  America,  new  causes  of  complaint  had 
been  zealously  urged  by  Adet.  The  British  at  this  time 
were  making  great  efforts  to  complete  the  conquest  of 
the  French  part  of  St.  Domingo,  the  defense  of  which 
for  the  Republic  had  been  left  almost  entirely  in  the 
hand  of  Toussaint  and  the  other  black  and  mulatto  gen- 
erals. Large  supplies  of  provisions  had  been  purchased 
in  America,  and  horses  also,  for  the  British  troops,  Amer- 
ican vessels  being  chartered  for  their  conveyance,  in  the 
expectation  that,  under  the  treaty  with  France,  they 
would  be  allowed  to  pass  without  interruption.  Adet 
repeatedly  complained  of  this,  and  Governor  Wood,  of 
Virginia,  undertook  to  stop  a  cargo  of  horses.  Orders 
were  sent,  however,  for  the  release  of  the  vessel  ;  and 
Pickering  maintained,  in  reply  to  Adet,  that  there  was 
nothing  in  these  sales  of  which  France  had  any  right  to 
complain.  Horses  undoubtedly  were  contraband,  and, 
as  such,  might  be  confiscated  if  taken  on  the  voyage , 
but  that  imposed  no  obligation  on  the  American  govern- 
ment to  prevent  their  sale  or  shipment. 


NEW   COMPLAINTS    BY    ADET.  fig] 

Hitherto,  though  not  bound  to  it  by  treaty,  the  Amer-  CHAPTER 
lean  government  had  permitted  tfoe  sale  of  French  prizes          ' 
brought  into  American  ports  ;   but,  in  consequence  of  an  1796. 
article  of  the  British  treaty,  this  permission  had  been 
discontinued,  and  a  circular  to  that  effect  had  been  sent 
to  all  the  collectors.      This  was  but  placing  the  two  na- 
tions on  the  same  footing :   yet  the  prohibition  became 
the  subject  of  warm  remonstrances  on  the  part  of  Adet. 

A  few  weeks  after  the  departure  of  Pinckney,  Adet  0,  t.  37 
made  a  formal  communication  of  the  decree  of  July  2d 
(14th  Messador),  already  mentioned,  of  the  existence  of 
which,  and  the  extraordinary  latitude  of  interpretation 
given  to  it,  practical  evidence  had  already  been  given  in 
the  seizure  of  numerous  American  vessels  in  the  West 
India  seas.  Besides  an  elaborate  defense  of  that  decree, 
this  letter  renewed  a  complaint,  already  several  times 
before  urged,  that  British  ships  of  war  were  allowed  to 
recruit  their  crews  by  pressing  sailors  from  American 
vessels.  As  if  to  follow  up  Genet's  system  of  direct  com- 
munication with  the  people,  independently  of  the  gov- 
ernment, this  letter  of  Adet's,  at  the  same  time  that  it 
was  sent  to  the  Department  of  State,  was  forwarded 
also  for  publication  to  Bache's  Aurora.  A  few  days 
after,  there  appeared  in  the  same  paper  a  proclamation  Nov  5 
or  order  signed  by  Adet,  calling  upon  all  Frenchmen  res- 
ident in  America,  in  the  name  of  the  French  Directory, 
to  mount  and  wear  the  tri-colored  cockade,  "  the  symbol 
of  a  liberty  the  fruit  of  eight  years'  toils  and  five  years' 
victories  ;"  nor  was  any  Frenchman  who  might  hesitate 
to  give  this  indication  of  adherence  to  the  Republic  to 
be  allowed  the  aid  of  the  French  consular  chanceries  or 
the  national  protection.  The  tri-colored  cockade  was  at 
once  mounted,  not  by  the  French  only,  but  by  many 
American  citizens,  who  wished  to  signify  in  this  marked 


582  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  manner  their  devoted  attachment  to  the  French  repub- 
lie.      In  this  "  cockade  proclamation,"  as  the  Federalists 
1  796.  called  it  in  ridicule,  originated  the  practice,  which  in  the 
next  four  years  became  very  common,  of  wearing  cock- 
ades as  a  badge  of  party  distinction. 

Nov.  15.  The  issue  of  this  quasi  proclamation  was  soon  followed 
by  a  note,  simultaneously  sent  to  Bache's  Aurora  and  to 
the  State  Department,  demanding,  «  in  the  name  of  the 
faith  of  treaties  and  of  American  honor,  the  execution 
of  that  contract  which  assured  to  the  United  States  their 
existence,  and  which  France  regarded  as  the  pledge  of 
the  most  sacred  union  between  two  people,  the  freest 
upon  earth  ;"  and  announcing  also,  at  the  same  time, 
"  the  resolution  of  a  government,  terrible  to  its  enemies, 
but  generous  to  its  allies." 

"  When  Europe  rose  up  against  the  Republic  at  its 
birth,  and  menaced  it  with  all  the  horrors  of  famine" — 
such  was  the  impassioned  introduction  to  this  remarkable 
state  paper,  rivaling  even  Genet's  peculiar  eloquence, 
and  evidently  intended  much  more  for  the  people  than 
for  the  government  — "  when  on  every  side  the  French 
could  not  calculate  on  any  but  enemies,  their  thoughts 
turned  toward  America,  and  a  sweet  sentiment  then  min- 
gled itself  with  those  proud  feelings  which  the  presence 
of  danger  and  the  desire  of  repelling  it  produced  in  their 
hearts.  In  America  they  saw  friends.  Those  who  went 
to  brave  tempests  and  death  upon  the  ocean  forgot  all 
dangers  in  order  to  indulge  the  hope  of  visiting  that 
American  continent,  where,  for  the  first  time,  the  French 
colors  had  been  displayed  in  favor  of  liberty.  Under  the 
guarantee  of  the  law  of  nations,  under  the  protecting 
shade  of  a  solemn  treaty,  they  expected  to  find  in  the 
ports  of  the  United  States  an  asylum  as  sure  as  at  home  ; 
they  thought,  if  T  may  use  the-  expression,  there  to  find 


ADET'S   FINAL   APPEAL. 

a  second  country.      The  French  government  thought  as  CHAPTER 
they  did.      Oh,  hope  worthy  of  a  faithful  people,  how 
hast  thou  been   deceived  !       So    far  from    offering  the  1796. 
French  the  succors  which  friendship  might  have  given 
without  compromising  itself,  the  American  government, 
in  this  respect,  violated  the  obligation  of  treaties." 

Here  followed  u  summary  of  these  alleged  violations, 
heretofore  urged  by  Adet  and  his  predecessors,  and  in  De 
la  Croix's  note  to  Monroe.  It  included  the  circular  of 
1793,  restraining  the  fitting  out  of  privateers  in  Amer 
ican  harbors  ;  the  law  of  1794,  prohibiting  hostile  enter- 
prises or  preparations  against  nations  with  whom  the 
United  States  were  at  peace  ;  the  cognizance  of  these 
matters  taken  by  the  American  courts  of  law ;  and  the 
admission  of  British  armed  vessels  into  American  waters. 
Not  content  with  these  tacit  derogations  of  the  rights 
of  France,  the  American  government,  so  Adet  asserted, 
had  gone  further,  and,  by  a  special  treaty  with  Great 
Britain,  had  secured  her  in  the  enjoyment  of  all  these 
indulgences ;  a  negotiation  as  to  which  the  French  gov- 
ernment had  been  misled  and  deceived  by  misrepresent- 
ations both  in  America  and  at  Paris,  and  which  had 
inflicted  still  further  injury  upon  France  by  concessions 
to  England  on  the  question  of  contraband  and  the  con- 
veyance of  enemy's  goods.  The  stipulations  on  these 
subjects  contained  in  the  treaty  with  Great  Britain, 
Adet  chose  to  represent  as  commercial  favors  granted  to 
England;  and  as  it  was  provided  by  the  treaty  with 
France  that,  so  far  as  respected  commerce  and  naviga- 
tion, she  should  be  admitted  to  the  privileges  of  the  most 
favored  nation,  he  undertook  to  justify,  on  the  ground 
of  this  provision,  the  recent  French  decree  authorizing 
French  cruisers  to  treat  American  vessels  as  they  suffered 
themselves  to  be  treated  by  the  British. 


(384  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

CHAPTER  He  also  announced  that  the  Directory,  as  a  further 
_  expression  of  their  dissatisfaction  at  what  they  consider- 
1 7 9^  ed  equivalent  to  a  treaty  of  alliance  between  the  United 
States  and  England,  had  sent  orders  to  him  to  suspend 
forthwith  his  ministerial  functions,  and  to  return  home. 
But  the  name  of  America,  notwithstanding  the  wrongs 
of  its  government,  still  excited  "  sweet  emotions"  in  the 
French  heart,  tfnd  this  suspension  of  diplomatic  relations 
was  not  to  be  considered  as  a  rupture,  but  only  as  "  a 
mark  of  just  discontent,"  "to  last  "until  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  should  return  to  sentiments 
and  measures  more  conformable  to  the  interests  of  the 
alliance  and  the  sworn  friendship  between  the  two  na- 
fions." 

After  these  preliminaries,  Adet  wound  up  with  a 
rhetorical  appeal  to  anti-British  feelings,  in  which  the 
government,  as  distinguished  from  the  people,  was  point- 
edly held  responsible  for  the  present  state  of  affairs  as 
between  France  and  America.  "  Alas !  time  has  not 
yet  demolished  the  fortifications  with  which  the  English 
roughened  this  country,  nor  those  the  Americans  raised 
for  their  defense  ;  their  half-rounded  summits  still  ap- 
pear in  every  quarter,  amid  plains,  on  the  tops  of  mount- 
ains. The  traveler  need  not  search  for  the  ditch  which 
served  to  encompass  thsm ;  it  is  still  open  under  his 
feet.  Scattered  ruins  of  houses  laid  waste,  which  the 
fire  had  partly  respected,  in  order  to  leave  monuments 
of  British  fury,  are  still  to  be  found.  Men  still  exist 
who  can  say,  'Here  a  ferocious  Englishman  slaughtered 
my  mother ;  there  my  wife  tore  her  bleeding  daughter 
from  the  hands  of  an  unbridled  Englishman !'  Alas !  the 
soldiers  who  fell  under  the  sword  of  the  Britons  are  not 
yet  reduced  to  dust :  the  laborer,  in  turning  up  his  fields, 
still  draws  fiom  the  boscm  of  the  earth  their  whitened 


WASHINGTON'S    FAREWELL   ADDRESS.  685 

bones,  while  the  plowman,  with  tears  of  tenderness  and  CHAPTER 

gratitude,  still  recollects  that  his  fields,  now  covered  with  _, 

rich  harvests,  have  been  moistened  with  French  blood;  1796. 
while  every  thing  around  the  inhabitants  of  this  country 
animates  them  to  speak  of  the  tyranny  of  Great  Britain, 
and  of  the  generosity  of  Frenchmen  ;  when  England  had 
declared  a  war  of  death  to  revenge  herself  on  France 
for  having  cemented  with  her  blood  the  independence  of 
the  United  States  ;  at  such  a  moment  their  government 
makes  a  treaty  of  amity  with  their  ancient  tyrant,  the 
implacable  enemy  of  their  ancient  ally!  O  Americans! 
covered  with  noble  scars !  O  !  you  who  have  so  often 
flown  to  death  and  to  victory  with  French  soldiers  !  you 
who  know  those  generous  sentiments  which  distinguish 
the  true  warrior  ;  whose  hearts  have  always  vibrated 
with  those  of  your  companions  in  arms  !  consult  them 
to-day  to  know  what  they  experience.  Recollect  also 
that  magnanimous  souls,  if  they  resent  an  affront  with 
liveliness,  know  also  how  to  forget  one.  Let  your  gov- 
ernment return  to  itself,  and  you  will  still  find  in  French- 
men faithful  friends  and  generous  allies  !" 

This  extraordinary  diplomatic  appeal  to  the  people 
was  no  doubt  intended  to  have  an  effect  on  the  votes  of 
the  presidential  electors  soon  to  be  given,  and  the  result 
of  which  was  generally  regarded  as  extremely  dubious. 

Washington's  fixed  determination  to  retire  from  office 
at  the  close  of  his  present  term,  known  since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year  to  those  in  his  intimacy,  had  only  be- 
come public  quite  recently  by  the  issues  of  his  famous  Sej  t,  is 
Farewell  Address.  That  address  embodied  in  its  intro- 
duction three  or  four  sentences  of  a  draft  which  Madison 
had  formerly  furnished,  at  Washington's  request,  just  be- 
fore the  close  of  his  first  term.  The  main  body  of  it 
seems  to  have  been  prepared  with  the  aid  of  a  draft  re- 


6S6  HISTORY   OF  THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  cently  furnished  by  Hamilton,  and  which  had  also  been 
^  '  subjected  to  Jay's  inspection.  Though  it  contains  much 
".  TQ6.  advice  of  general  application,  almost  every  line  of  it  may 
be  traced  to  particular  incidents  which  had  occurred  dur- 
ing Washington's  administration.  The  maintenance  of 
the  Union  as  "  the  palladium  of  political  prosperity  and 
safety ;"  of  the  Federal  Constitution ;  and  of  the  public 
credit ;  were  emphatically  urged,  with  solemn  admonitions 
against  sectional  jealousies  and  heart-burnings  ;  against 
combinations  and  associations  to  obstruct  the  laws  ;  and 
against  the  baleful  effects  of  party  spirit,  and  of  perma- 
nent inveterate  antipathies  against  particular  nations,  or 
passionate  attachments  for  others. 

The  policy  of  an  impartial  neutrality  and  of  a  discon- 
nection from  the  nations  of  Europe,  so  far  as  existing 
treaties  would  permit,  together  with  the  dangers  of  for- 
eign influence,  were  handled  at  length.  For  one  nation 
to  look  to  another  for  disinterested  favors  was  treated  as 
a  folly,  "  an  illusion  -which  experience  must  cure,  which 
a  just  pride  ought  to  discard."  Whatever  might  be  ac- 
cepted under  that  character,  the  nation  must  pay  for  by 
a  portion  of  its  independence,  at  the  same  time  placing 
itself  in  the  condition  of  having  given  equivalents  for 
nominal  favors,  and  yet  of  being  reproached  with  ingrati- 
tude for  not  giving  more. 

A  great  part  of  the  address  had,  indeed,  so  direct  a 
bearing  on  the  present  position  of  the  United  States  with 
respect  to  France,  that  we  ought,  perhaps,  to  consider 
Adet's  manifesto,  quoted  above,  so  closely  following  upon 
it,  and  given  to  the  public,  like  the  address,  through  the 
medium  of  the  newspapers,  as  intended,  in  part,  to  coun- 
teract its  effect. 

The  late  period  at  which  Washington's  intention  to 
retire  was  announced  lef  \  but  a  short  time  for  electioneer- 


PRESIDENTIAL   CANDIDATES. 

ing ;  but  the  two  parties,  in  anticipation  of  ttu«  event,  were  CHAPTER 

already  prepared  with  their  candidates.      The  nomina- ^ 

tions,  indeed,  were  neither  formally  made  nor  officially  179fi. 
announced.  As  yet  the  letter  of  the  Constitution  was 
regarded,  which  left  the  actual  selection  of  persons  to  be 
voted  for  to  the  judgment  of  the  presidential  electors. 
Yet  the  members  of  Congress  seem  already  to  have  as- 
sumed the  office,  afterward  exercised  in  a  more  open 
and  formal  manner,  and  maintained  for  the  next  quarter 
of  a  century,  of  designating  the  candidates  of  their  re- 
spective parties — a  designation  to  which  those  chosen  as 
electors  very  generally  conformed. 

The  real  leader  of  the  Federal  party  was  Hamilton  ; 
but  the  greater  age  and  longer  public  services  of  Jay  and 
of  John  Adams  placed  them  more  prominently  before  the 
public  as  candidates  for  the  presidency.  On  comparison 
of  the  personal  characteristics  of  the  two  men,  Hamilton 
would  have  much  preferred  Jay  ;  but  the  position  of 
Adams  was  such  as  to  give  him  a  decided  advantage. 
His  Revolutionary  services  were  of  the  first  order  ;  his 
reputation  for  talents  and  integrity  was  of  the  highest ; 
by  his  office  of  vice-president  he  stood  in  the  line  of  pro- 
motion ;  and,  what  was  of  still  greater  weight,  he  was 
the  choice,  and,  as  it  were,  the  representative  of  New 
England,  which  had  furnished  all  along  so  steady  and  so 
principal  a  support  to  the  federal  government. 

If  one  of  the  two  candidates  to  be  voted  for  was  taken 
from  the  North,  policy  required  to  take  the  other  from 
the  South.  Of  the  limited  number  of  Southern  states- 
men who  had  supported  federal  measures,  none  stood  at 
this  moment  more  conspicuously  before  the  public  than 
Thomas  Pinckney.  His  success  in  the  Spanish  nego- 
tiation had  gained  him  credit  with  the  public  at  large, 
he  was  specially  recommended  to  the  esteem  and 


688  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

•JHAPTER  gratitude  of  the  Federalists  by  the  frank  support  which 
'      he  had  given  to  Jay's  negotiation.      Indeed,  there  were 

1796.  some,  and  Hamilton  was  among  the  number,  who  secret- 
ly wished  that  Pinckney  might  receive  the  larger  vote, 
and  so  be  chosen  president  over  Adams's  head — a  result, 
from  the  likelihood  of  Pinckney's  receiving  more  votes  at 
the  South,  by  no  means  improbable,  could  the  Northern 
Federal  electors  be  persuaded  to  vote  equally  for  both 
candidates. 

On  the  side  of  the  opposition,  there  was  nobody  to 
compete  with  Jefferson  for  the  post  of  first  candidate 
While  stimulating  Madison  to  political  efforts,  Jefferson 
had  suggested  that  he  (Madison)  ought  to  be  the  candi- 
date of  the  party  ;  and  when  Madison  returned  the  com- 

1795.  plirnent,  he  had  written  back  in  the  tone  of  an  old  man 
i  27.  jn  whom  ambition  was  extinct,  and  who  had  withdrawn 
from  the  world  with  a  fixed  and  unalterable  determina- 
tion to  have  nothing  more  to  do  with  office.  Yet,  before 
the  election  came  on,  it  was  very  generally  understood 
that  if  Jefferson  were  chosen  he  would  not  decline  to 
serve.  This,  however,  if  we  can  trust  the  letter  to  Mad- 
ison, was  only  through  fear  that,  if  he  withdrew  his  name, 
the  Republican  party  might  fall  into  unfortunate  divis- 
ions. 

It  was  urged  in  a  Richmond  newspaper  that  Virginia, 
by  reason  of  her  superior  extent,  wealth,  and  population, 
and  her  known  republicanism,  had  a  right  to  furnish  a 
president,  and  that  Jefferson  was  entitled  to  the  station 
as  a  philosopher,  a  Republican,  a  friend  of  civil  and  re- 
ligious liberty;  attached  to  the  Federal  Constitution,  but 
favorable  to  amendments  of  it ;  an  enthusiastic  admirer 
of  the  French  Revolution,  but  without  surrendering  the 
independence  and  self-government  of  the  United  States ; 
with  a  proper  sense  of  the  perfidious  conduct  of  Great 


PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTORS. 


Britain,  which,  however,  he  desired  to  counteract,  not  CHAPTER 
by   war,    but   by   pacific    measures   more   advantageous  _______ 

than  the  recent  treaty  ;  as  a  citizen  distinguished  for  dip-  1796 
lomatic  talents  and  political  sagacity,  and  possessed  of  a 
fortune  not  less  independent  than  his  principles. 

The  candidate  of  the  opposition  at  the  preceding  elec- 
tion, as  against  John  Adams,  had  been  George  Clinton, 
Clinton,  however,  had  been  recently  outshone  as  a  leader 
of  the  opposition  by  Aaron  Burr.  As  Burr  had  the  ad- 
vantage of  being  on  the  spot,  and  was  unrivaled  in  the 
arts  of  personal  influence  and  intrigue,  he  had  been  agreed 
upon  by  the  opposition  members  of  Congress  as  the  sec- 
ond candidate  ;  but  the  support  which  he  received  was 
far  from  being  uniform,  and,  indeed,  he  was  already  aa 
object  of  suspicion  at  the  South,  as  likely  to  be  a  dan- 
gerous competitor  for  the  leadership  of  the  Republican 
party. 

The  choice  of  presidential  electors  was  very  warmly 
contested  in  all  the  doubtful  states.  Governor  Samuel 
Adams,  brought  forward  as  a  candidate  for  elector  in  the 
Boston  district,  was  beaten.  Gerry  was  chosen  by  the 
Legislature  for  one  of  the  districts  in  which  a  choice  by 
the  people  had  failed.  He  voted,  however,  for  Adams 
and  Pinckney,  for  which  he  apologized,  in  a  letter  to  Jef- 
ferson, on  the  ground  that  to  have  voted  for  him  would 
have  endangered  Adams's  election  to  the  office  of  presi- 
dent, to  which  Gerry  thought  him  entitled,  though  de- 
sirous to  see  Jefferson  chosen  vice-president.  After 
making  a  choice  for  those  districts  in  which  an  election 
by  the  people  had  failed,  the  Massachusetts  Legislature, 
oy  joint  resolution,  authorized  the  electoral  college  to 
fill  any  vacancies  that  might  occur  in  their  own  body. 
Governor  Adarns  signed  this  resolution;  but  the  next 
day  he  entered  the  secretary's  office,  e/ased  his  name, 
IV.—  X  x 


590  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITLJJ   STATES. 

CHAPTER  and  sent  a  message  to  the  Legislature  giving  his  reasons 
'  against  it.  The  real  reason,  no  doubt,  was,  though  not 
1796.  stated  in  the  message,  that  any  unfilled  vacancy  in  tlie 
Massachusetts  college  would  be  so  much  taken  from  the 
Federal  strength,  and  might,  in  the  close  division  of  votes, 
be  decisive  of  the  election.  The  Legislature,  however, 
expressed  their  opinion  that  the  governor  was  too  late 
with  his  objections,  and  that  his  undertaking  to  alter  a 
record  by  erasing  his  name  was  a  proceeding  altogeth- 
er unauthorized.  All  the  states  north  of  Pennsylvania 
chose  Federalists  as  electors.  The  choice  in  Connecti- 
cut and  New  York  was  by  the  Legislature.  The  law 
of  Pennsylvania  provided  for  a  choice  by  general  ticket, 
and  the  result  in  that  state  was  thought  likely  to  de- 
cide the  choice  of  president.  The  friends  of  Jefferson 
had  been  very  anxious  for  a  choice  by  districts,  which 
would  have  divided  the  votes;  but  the  Federalists,  con- 
fident in  their  strength,  had  refused.  Great,  therefore, 
was  their  chagrin  to  find  that  the  heavy  vote  of  the 
trans- Allegany  district,  and  the  unexpected  majority  of 
two  thousand  for  the  opposition  in  the  city  and  county 
of  Philadelphia,  had  carried  the  state  against  them  by 
a  very  close  vote,  only  one  of  the  Federal  candidates 
being  chosen.  It  was  said  that  many  Quakers  voted 
the  opposition  ticket  through  fear  of  a  rupture  with 
France.  The  law  required  the  returns  to  be  made  with- 
in fourteen  days,  when  the  governor  was  to  proclaim 
the  result,  and  notify  those  elected.  Had  this  law  been 
literally  complied  with,  the  Federal  ticket,  notwithstand- 
ing an  actual  majority  against  it,  must  have  been  de- 
clared chosen,  the  returns  from  several  heavy  opposition 
counties  being,  by  accident  or  design,  behind  the  time. 
Mifflin,  however,  again  chosen  governor  at  this  same 
election  without  opposition,  chose  to  interpret  the  limit 


SECOND  SESSION  OF  THE  FOURTH  CONGRESS.  591 

*f  fourteen  days  as  only  a  direction  to  the  returning  of-  CIIAPTEH 
ficers,  and  to  delay  his  own  action  till  all  the  returns  ' 
were  actually  in.  He  argued,  and  justly — taking  the  1796 
opposite  doctrine  to  that  under  which  Clinton  had  held 
for  four  years  the  government  of  New  York — that  voters 
ought  not  to  be  deprived  of  their  rights  on  any  merely 
formal  and  technical  grounds.  Delaware,  and  six  of  the 
ten  Maryland  districts  were  carried  for  the  Federalists, 
one  of  them  by  a  majority  of  four  votes  only.  In  Vir- 
ginia, North  Carolina,  Georgia,  Kentucky,  and  Tennes- 
see, the  Republican  ticket  prevailed  almost  without  op- 
position. The  event  at  last  seemed  to  depend  on  South 
Carolina.  The  electors  of  that  state,  chosen  by  the  Leg- 
islature, were  thought  likely,  as  they  actually  did,  to  vote 
for  Jefferson  and  Pinckney,  thus  taking  one  candidate 
from  either  party — a  circumstance  which  possibly  might 
make  Pinckney  president. 

The  result  was  still  unknown  when  Congress  came  Dec.  5 
together.  Several  new  members  appeared  in  the  Senate. 
Sedgwick  and  Goodhue,  of  Massachusetts,  both  late 
members  of  the  House,  in  place  of  Cabot  and  Strong,  who 
had  resigned  ;  Hillhouse  and  Tracy,  of  Connecticut,  both 
also  late  members  of  the  House,  in  place  of  Ellsworth 
and  Trumbuli ;  Isaac  Tichenor,  of  Vermont,  in  place  of 
Bradley,  thus  giving  a  full  Federal  delegation  from  that 
state,  and,  indeed,  from  the  whole  range  of  states  north 
of  Maryland,  with  the  exceptions  of  Langdon  and  Burr. 
Lawrence,  of  New  York,  supplied  the  place  of  Rufus 
King,  who  had  gone  as  minister  to  England.  Richard 
Stockton,  of  New  Jersey,  John  E.  Howard,  of  Maryland, 
and  John  Hunter,  of  South  Carolina,  filled  vacancies 
caused  by  resignation.  Blount  and  Cocke,  from  the 
new  state  of  Tennessee,  now  also  took  their  seats.  In 
the  House,  that  new  state  was  represented  by  Andrew 


692  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED   STATE* 

CHAPTER  Jackson,  whom  Gallatin,  in  his  old  age,  recollected  and 
.  described   as   having  been  a  tally  lank,  uncouth-looking 

1796.  personage,  with  long  locks  of  hair  hanging  over  his  face, 
and  a  cue  down  his  back  tied  in  an  eel-skin  ;  his  dress 
singular,  his  manners  and  deportment  that  of  a  rough 
backwoodsman.  No  eye  among  his  associates  was  pro- 
phetic enough,  under  that  rude  aspect,  to  recognize  or 
imagine  the  future  general  and  president. 

The  president's  speech  roared  with  satisfaction  to 
the  continuance  of  peace  on  the  Indian  frontier,  and  to 
the  occupation  by  American  garrisons  of  the  Western 
posts,  lately  given  up  under  the  British  treaty.  The 
commissions  under  that  treaty  on  the  northeastern 
boundary  and  on  British  spoliations  had  been  already 
organized.  As  respected  the  cornmisyion  on  British  debts, 
no  notice  had  yet  been  received  of  the  appointment  of 
commissioners  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain.  Under  the 
provisions  of  the  Spanish  treaty,  joint  surveyors  had  been 
appointed  to  run  the  boundary  line,  and  troops  had  been 
detached  to  occupy  the  posts  on  the  Lower  Mississippi 
to  be  given  up  by  Spain.  Agents  had  been  appointed 
under  the  new  law  for  the  protection  of  American  sea- 
men against  impressment ;  but  it  was  too  soon  to  judge 
of  the  efficiency  of  that  measure.  Congress  was  con- 
gratulated on  the  actual  liberation,  at  last,  of  the  Alge- 
rine  captives,  but  with  an  intimation  that  further  pecu- 
niary provision  would  be  necessary  to  carry  out  the 
treaty.  Pending  the  session,  these  released  captives, 
sixty  in  number,  arrived  at  Philadelphia,  and  were  es- 
corted into  the  city  by  a  great  multitude  of  citizens.  A 
woman  darting  from  the  crowd  claimed  one  of  the  num- 
ber as  her  husband,  whom  she  had  not  seen  for  fourteen 
years.  Treaties  with  Tripoli  and  Tunis  were  in  prog- 
Nov.  i.  ress ;  indeed,  one  with  Tripoli  had  already  been  signed 


PRESIDENT'S   SPEECH.  (593 

by   Barlow,   though    the    fact  was   not   yet    known   in  CHAPTER 
America.      •  * 

The  gradual  creation  of  H  navy  wa*  recommended  by  1796. 
the  president  as  essential  to  the  protection  of  an  active 
external  commerce  ;  also,  national  establishments  for  the 
manufactory  of  arms  for  the  public  service.  It  had  been 
found,  in  the  attempts  to  provide  cannon  for  the  frigates 
and  for  the  new  fortifications,  that  the  skill  in  cannon- 
founding  acquired  during  the  Revolution  had  already  dis- 
appeared. A  military  academy  was  strongly  recom- 
mended as  a  means  of  preserving  and  transmitting  a 
knowledge  of  the  art  of  war,  an  establishment  especially 
necessary  in  a  pacific  nation.  Attention  was  also  re- 
called to  an  efficient  organization  of  the  militia — a  rec- 
ommendation frequently  made  in  previous  speeches — as 
well  as  to  the  expediency  of  further  harbor  defense. 

The  president  suggested  the  encouragement  of  agri- 
culture by  the  establishment  of  boards  charged  with  col- 
lecting and  diffusing  information,  and  enabled  by  pre- 
miums and  small  pecuniary  aids  to  encourage  and  assist 
e  spirit  of  discovery  and  improvement.  He  also  proposed 
the  establishment  of  a  national  university,  having  among 
its  primary  objects  education  in  the  science  of  govern- 
ment. An  assimilation  of  principles,  opinions,  and  man- 
ners, by  the  education  together  of  young  men  from  every 
quarter  of  the  country,  was  suggested  as  one  motive  to  it. 

The  attention  of  Congress  was  also  called  to  the  com- 
pensation of  the  public  officers,  especially  in  the  case  of 
the  more  important  stations.  Insufficiency  of  compen- 
sation, making  private  wealth  necessary  to  supply  the 
defect  of  public  pay,  greatly  restricted  the  circle  from 
which  choice  could  be  made,  thus  diminishing  the  chance 
of  good  ones.  Besides,  it  was  repugnant  to  the  vital 
principles  of  our  government  virtually  to  exclude  frina 


f,94  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

CHAPIEII  public  trusts  talents  and  virtue,  unless  accompanied  by 
_____  wealth. 

1796.  In  relation  to  the  extensive  injuries  recently  com- 
mitted upon  American  trade  in  the  West  Indies  by  the 
cruisers  and  agents  of  the  French  republic,  and  to  com- 
munications lately  received  from  the  French  minister, 
far  from  agreeable  in  other  respects,  and  indicating  the 
danger  of  still  further  interruptions,  the  president  ob- 
served :  "  It  has  been  my  constant,  sincere,  and  earnest 
wish,  in  conformity  with  that  of  our  nation,  to  maintain 
cordial  harmony  and  a  perfectly  friendly  understanding 
with  that  republic.  This  wish  remains  unabated  ;  and 
I  shall  persevere  in  the  endeavor  to  fulfill  it  to  the  ut- 
most extent  of  what  shall  be  consistent  with  a  just  and 
indispensable  regard  to  the  rights  and  honor  of  our  coun- 
try ;  nor  will  I  easily  cease  to  cherish  the  expectation 
that  a  spirit  of  justice,  candor,  and  friendship  on  the  part 
of  that  republic  will  eventually  insure  success.  But,  in 
pursuing  this  course,  I  can  not  forget  what  is  due  to  the 
character  of  our  government  and  nation,  or  to  a  full  and 
entire  confidence  in  the  good  sense,  patriotism,  self-re- 
spect, and  fortitude  of  my  countrymen." 

After  suggesting  to  the  House  the  expediency  of  car- 
rying into  effect  at  the  present  session  the  provisions 
discussed  during  the  previous,  one,  for  the  relief  of  the 
finances  and  the  more  complete  discharge  of  the  public 
debt,  the  speech  concluded  as  follows :  "  The  situation 
in  which  I  now  stand  for  the  last  time,  in  the  midst  of 
the  representatives  of  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
naturally  recalls  the  period  when  the  administration  of 
the  present  form  of  government  commenced ;  and  I  can 
not  omit  the  occasion  to  congratulate  you  and  my  coun- 
try on  the  success  of  the  experiment,  nor  to  repeat  my 
fervent  supplications  to  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  the  uni- 


ANSWER  OF  THE  HOUSE.  69£ 

verse  and  Sovereign  Arbiter  of  nations  that  his  provi-  CJIAFTEB 

dential  care  may  still  be  extended  to  the  United  States, 

that  the  virtue  and  happiness  of  the  people  may  be  pre-  1796 
served,  and  that  the  government  which  they  have  insti- 
tuted for  the  protection  of  their  liberties  may  be  per- 
petual." 

The  answer,  on  the  part  of  the  House,  was  not  agreed 
to  without  a  good  deal  of  debate,  in  which  considerable 
handle  was  made  by  the  opposition  of  an  unlucky  passage 
in  the  original  draft  alluding  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
United  States  as  "  the  freest  and  most  enlightened  peo- 
ple on  earth."  So  far  as  related  to  all  the  rest  of  the 
world,  the  modesty  of  the  opposition  would  not  have  been 
so  greatly  shocked;  but  they  were  exceedingly  distressed 
at  the  idea  of  thus  taking  precedence  of  the  French  re- 
public. After  a  pretty  complete  echo  of  the  sentiments 
of  the  president,  by  no  means  agreeable  to  the  opposition, 
yet  not  quite  strong  enough  to  satisfy  the  more  ardent 
Federalists,  the  answer,  as  agreed  to,  was  principally 
occupied  with  compliments  to  Washington  on  the  occa- 
sion of  his  approaching  retirement.  It  concluded  with 
the  following  words  :  "  For  our  country's  sake,  for  the 
sake  of  republicanism,  it  is  our  earnest  wish  that  your 
example  may  be  the  guide  of  your  successors,  and  thus, 
after  being  the  ornament  and  safeguard  of  the  present 
age,  become  the  patrimony  of  our  descendants."  This, 
however,  was  further  than  the  more  zealous  of  the  oppo- 
sition were  willing  to  go  ;  and  a  motion  to  strike  out  this 
paragraph  received  the  support  of  twenty-four  members, 
nea.r  a  third  of  the  whole  number  voting.  Gallatin, 
Giles,  Andrew  Jackson,  Livingston,  Macon,  Swanwick, 
and  Varnum  were  among  the  number.  Of  the  twenty- 
four,  eight  were  from  Virginia.  Madison,  Nicholas,  and 
Page  were  not  prepared  to  go  quite  so  far ;  they  voted 


(396  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER  against  the  amendment,  as  also  did  Claiborne.     The  othei 

'  seven  Virginia  members  did  not  vote.      The  address  did 

1796.  not  finally  pass  without  a  call  for  the  yeas  and  nays  by 

Dec.  15.  Blount  of  North  Carolina — the  same  who  had  been  put 

forward  at  the  previous  session  to  move  the  resolutions 

as  to  the  treaty-making  power — and  who  now  declared 

his   anxiety   to   transmit  the  fact  to  posterity  that  he, 

Thomas  Blount,  had  not  been  consenting  to  the  address. 

Twelve  members  recorded  themselves  in  the  negative  in 

Blount's  company,  among  them  Giles,  Andrew  Jackson, 

Livingston,  and  Macon. 

The  state  of  feeling  toward  Washington  among  the 
more  violent  part  of  the  opposition  may  be  judged  of  by 
Dec  23  the  following  extract  from  a  cotemporaneous  article  in 
the  Aurora  :  "  If  ever  a  nation  was  debauched  by  a  man, 
the  American  nation  has  been  debauched  by  Washington, 
If  ever  a  nation  was  deceived  by  a  man,  the  American 
nation  has  been  deceived  by  Washington.  Let  his  con- 
duct, then,  be  an  example  to  future  ages.  Let  it  serve 
to  be  a  warning  that  no  man  may  be  an  idol.  Let  the 
history  of  the  federal  government  instruct  mankind  that 
the  mask  of  patriotism  may  be  worn  to  conceal  the  foul- 
est designs  against  the  liberties  of  the  people."  This, 
indeed,  was  but  a  somewhat  exaggerated  specimen  of 
the  abusive  articles  to  be  found  almost  daily  in  the  col- 
umns of  the  Aurora,  from  the  office  of  which  had  just 
issued  a  most  virulent  pamphlet,  under  the  form  of  a  let- 
ter  to  Washington  from  the  notorious  Thomas  Paine, 
whose  natural  insolence  and  dogmatism  had  now  become 
aggravated  by  habitual  drunkenness.  This  pamphlet, 
sent  for  publication  from  Paris,  had  been  composed  under 
the  roof  of  Monroe,  with  whom  Paine  was  residing,  hav- 
ing been  released  from  prison  at  Monroe's  intercession. 
Paine's  claim  to  be  an  American  citizen,  though  he  had 


RESPONSES  TO  WASHINGTON'S  FAREWELL  ADDRESS.  597 

sat  in  the  Convention  as  a  citizen  of  France,  had  been  CHAPTKB 

made  the  basis  of  an  application,  such  as  Monroe  did  not _ 

venture  upon  in  Madame  La  Fayette's  case,  also  a  pris-  1796. 
oner,  and  for  whom  his  intervention  had  likewise  been 
solicited. 

Nor  did  Washington's  assailants  confine  themselves  to 
libels.  Among  other  means  for  destroying  his  influence 
was  the  republication  of  certain  forged  letters,  originally 
printed  in  England  in  the  course  of  the  Revolutionary 
war,  and  artfully  framed  for  the  purpose  of  exhibiting 
Washington  as  secretly  sick  of  the  cause,  and  opposed  to 
the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

These  efforts  of  violent  party  zeal  produced,  however, 
but  little  effect  on  the  great  mass  of  the  people.  The. 
state  Legislatures,  as  they  respectively  met,  responded, 
with  but  one  or  two  exceptions,  in  the  old  tone  of  confi- 
dence and  affection,  to  Washington's  Farewell  Address. 
Several  of  them  ordered  that  paper  to  be  entered  at  length 
on  their  journals,  and  nearly  all — even  Virginia  included, 
and  that,  too,  by  a  unanimous  vote — passed  resolutions 
expressing  their  respect  for  the  president's  person,  their 
high  sense  of  his  exalted  services,  and  their  regret  at 
his  approaching  retirement  from  office.  The  particular 
friends  of  Washington  in  the  Virginia  House  of  Delegates 
wished,  indeed,  to  make  the  address  of  that  body  a  little 
more  specific,  by  expressly  ascribing  to  him  "  wisdom  in 
the  cabinet,  valor  in  the  field,  and  the  purest  patriotism 
in  both  ;"  but  to  this  amendment  the  House  refused  to 
accede,  seventy-four  to  sixty-nine. 

The  early  part  of  the  session  of  Congress  was  con- 
sumed in  the  House  in  an  endeavor  to  bring  into  a  satis-  \ 
factory  shape  a  bill  for  organizing  the  militia  on  the  basis 
of  a  classification  into  active  and  reserved  corps ;  but  this 
failed,  like  all  other  attempts  of  the  sort  before  and  since 


f,98  HISTORY    OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 

CHAPTER       The  necessity  of  making  some  additional  financial  pro- 
'      visions  had  called  attention  to  the  Revolutionary  balance*- 

1796.  due  to  the  Union  from  several  of  the  states.      Upon  the 
report  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  to  whom 
that  subject  had  been  referred,  the  House,  after  a  very 

1797.  warm  debate,  agreed  to  two  resolutions,  one  requesting 
Jan.  5.   fae  president  to  inform  the  debtor  states  of  the  amount 

due,  with  the  interest  thereon ;  the  other,  agreeing  to  ac- 
cept payment  in  the  same  sort  of  stocks  and  in  the  same 
proportions  in  which  the  balances  to  the  creditor  states 
had  been  paid.  Much  stronger  measures  had  been  pr<* 
posed.  New  York,  the  principal  debtor  state,  held  in 
stocks  of  the  United  States,  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  her 
wild  lands,  of  confiscated  property,  and  of  army  certifi- 
cates, purchased  up  at  a  very  low  price  out  of  the  prod- 
uct of  her  excise  under  the  Confederation,  a  sum  about 
equal  to  the  amount  due  from  her  to  the  United  States 
During  the  debate  in  committee,  Nicholas  proposed  to 
seize  upon  these  stocks  by  way  of  payment,  and  in  the 
House  a  motion  was  made  to  prohibit  transfers  of  stocks 
held  by  debtor  states.  This  motion  failed  to  be  carried, 
but  the  New  York  Legislature,  then  in  session,  took  care 
to  guard  against  the  future  by  ordering  an  immediate 
sale  of  their  stocks.  By  way  of  retort  on  the  Connecti- 
cut members,  who  were  zealous  for  obtaining  payment, 
Livingston  moved  for  an  inquiry  into  the  Connecticut 
title  to  the  lands  of  the  Western  Reserve,  lately  sold  by 
her,  and  of  which  the  settlement  was  now  commencing ; 
but  this  motion  was  laid  on  the  table,  without  any  action 
on  it. 

In  obedience  to  a  resolution  of  the  preceding  session, 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  had  sent  in  a  very  elabo- 
rate report  on  the  state  of  the  finances.  According  to 
his  calculations;  allowing  $2,700,000  for  the  annual 


ADDITIONAL   1AAES.  (3  9  <j 

current  expenses,  independent  of  the  public  debt,  and  CHAPTER 

taking  the  existing  revenue  at  $6,200,000,  to  enable 

the  treasury  to  meet  all  the  demands  upon  it  as  they  1797 
became  due,  including  the  temporary  loans  and  the  in- 
stallments of  ths  foreign  debt,  there  would  be  needed, 
during  the  next  three  years,  the  annual  additional  sum 
of  $1,229,000.  This  amount  he  proposed  to  raise  by  a 
direct  tax  upon  lands,  houses,  and  slaves,  upon  which 
subject  very  elaborate  calculations  were  submitted.  As 
to  this  tax,  there  was  a  good  deal  of  maneuvering.  The 
commercial  representatives  were  generally  in  favor  of  it, 
on  the  ground  that  commerce  was  sufficiently  burdened 
already,  the  average  rate  of  duties  amounting  to  sixteen 
per  cent,  on  the  whole  amount  of  imports.  A  revenue 
exclusively  from  duties  on  imports  was,  they  argued,  too 
uncertain  and  fluctuating,  and  too  much  at  the  mercy 
of  foreign  interference.  The  bulk  of  the  House  were 
little  disposed  to  lay  a  tax  likely  to  be  so  unpopular  as 
a  direct  one  on  land;  yet  the  opposition  were  inclined  to 
force  the  Federalists  to  adopt  it  for  that  very  reason ;  or, 
if  they  took  the  responsibility  of  defeating  it,  to  oblige 
them  to  assume,  at  the  same  time,  the  responsibility  of 
leaving  the  wants  of  the  government  unprovided  for. 
After  a  very  long  debate  in  Committee  of  the  Whole, 
resolutions  were  carried  in  favor  of  a  direct  tax ;  but 
in  the  end  the  bill  failed,  and,  as  a  substitute  for  it, 
there  were  levied,  on  Wolcott's  suggestion,  additional 
duties  of  half  a  cent  per  pound  on  brown  sugar,  two 
cents  per  pound  on  bohea  tea,  one  cent  per  gallon  on 
molasses,  and  upon  velvets  and  velveteens,  muslins,  and 
other  white  cotton  goods,  an  additional  two  and  a  half 
per  cent,  ad  valorem,  thus  raising  the  duties  on  these 
articles  to  the  following  rates  :  brown  sugar,  tw:>  cents ; 
bohea  tea,  twelve  cents;  molasses,  four  cents;  velvets 


700  HISTORY    OP    THE    UNITED    STATES 

CHAPTER  and  cotton  goods,  twelve  and  a  half  per  cent,  ad  valo- 


IX. 

_rem. 


1797.  The  favorite  scheme  of  the  opposition  was,  instead  of 
increasing  the  revenue,  to  diminish  the  expenditure. 
They  labored  very  hard,  though  without  success,  to  re- 
v^uce  the  army  from  four  to  three  regiments,  and  to  stop 
the  equipment  of  the  three  frigates.  Advantage  was 
taken  of  the  death  of  Wayne  to  abolish  the  major  gen- 
eralship, the  command  of  the  army  thus  devolving  on 
Wilkinson,  the  brigadier  general.  A  bill  was  also  passed 
to  disband  the  two  companies  of  dragoons  ;  but  upon  this 
bill  the  president  placed  his  veto,  as  he  considered  the 
dragoons  essential  to  the  efficiency  of  the  service  on  the 
frontiers.  This  state  of  things  was  not  very  favorable 
to  the  increase  of  salaries  which  the  president  had  rec- 
ommended. A  bill  passed  the  Senate  adding  $5000  to 
the  president's  salary,  $2000  to  that  of  the  vice-presi- 
dent, with  an  increase  of  about  a  third  in  the  salaries  of 
the  executive  officers,  and  in  the  pay  of  members  of 
Congress.  But  this  bill  failed  in  the  House  ;  and  the 
only  increase  actually  made  was  in  the  salary  of  the  At- 
torney General,  raised  to  $2000,  and  in  the  pay  of  some 
of  the  revenue  officers.  The  appropriations  for  the  serv- 
ice of  the  current  year  amounted  to  about  $2,500.000, 
including  $14,000,  in  addition  to  the  proceeds  of  the 
sale  of  the  old  furniture,  for  refitting  the  president's 
house ;  $280,259  for  the  balance  due  on  the  Algerine 
treaty,  with  $96,246  in  addition,  for  two  years'  tribute 
under  it;  $50,000  for  expenses  in  prosecuting  appeals 
in  British  prize  courts;  and  $145,550  for  militia  service 
in  former  years  on  the  Southern  frontier. 

The  result  of  the  presidential  election  not  only  evinced 
the  close  balance  of  parties,  but  served  also  to  show  their 
sectional  distribution,  such  as  had  prevailed  ever  since 


RESULT    OF    THE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION.    7Q1 

the  first  organization  of  the  government,  and  against  the  CHAPTER 
dangerous  consequences  of  which  Washington's  warning          ' 
voice  .had  been  raised  in  his  Farewell  Address.  1797. 

The  whole  number  of  electoral  votes  was  one  hundred 
and  thirty-eight,  making  seventy  necessary  to  a  choice. 
Adams  received  seventy-one,  including  all  those  east  of 
Pennsylvania,  the  three  votes  of  Delaware,  seven  in 
Maryland  (one  of  the  electors  of  that  state  voting  for 
Adams  and  Jefferson),  and  one  from  each  of  the  states 
of  Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  and  North  Carolina.  Jeffer- 
son received  sixty-nine  votes — four  in  Maryland,  those 
of  Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  and  North  Carolina,  except 
one  in  each  state,  and  the  entire  vote  of  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee.  Though  Pinckney 
gained  eight  votes  upon  Adams  in  South  Carolina  and 
one  in  Pennsylvania,  yet  he  lost  eighteen  in  New  En- 
gland, and  three  morer  in  Maryland,  withheld  from  him 
lest  ho  might  be  chosen  over  Adams's  head.  His  votes 
amounted  to  fifty-nine.  Burr  received  thirty  votes — 
thirteen  in  Pennsylvania,  three  in  Virginia,  six  in  North 
Carolina,  and  the  entire  vote  of  Kentucky  and  Tennes- 
see. Forty-eight  votes  were  scattered  among  various 
candidates,  of  which  Samuel  Adams  received  fifteen, 
Ellsworth  eleven,  George  Clinton  seven,  and  Jay  five. 
The  votes  having  been  opened  and  declared  in  presence  Feb  8 
of  the  two  houses,  the  vice-president,  after  a  short  pause, 
rose  and  proclaimed  John  Adams  and  Thomas  Jefferson 
president  and  vice-president  of  the  United  States  for 
four  years  from  the  fourth  of  March  ensuing,  to  which 
announcement  he  added  the  following  characteristic  in- 
vocation :  "  And  may  the  Sovereign  of  the  universe, 
the  ordainer  of  civil  government  on  earth  for  the  pres- 
ervation of  liberty,  peace,  and  justice  among  men,  en- 
able  them  both  to  discharge  the  duties  of  those  offices 


702  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

•JIIAPTER  with  conscientious  diligence,  punctuality,  and  persever 


IX. 


1797.  The  serious  objections  which  existed  to  the  mode  then 
in  force  of  choosing  president  and  vice-president — two 
persons  being  voted  for  by  each  elector,  without  any  des- 
ignation of  the  particular  office  for  which  either  was  in- 
tended— had  been  made  abundantly  evident  during  the 
late  election.  A  resolution  for  amending  the  Constitution 
in  this  particular,  so  as  to  allow  the  electors  to  designate 
the  candidates  for  either  office,  was  brought  forward  by 
Smith  of  South  Carolina.  But  it  required  farther  and 
more  complete  experience  of  the  evil  to  stimulate  action 
for  its  removal. 

Jan.  19.  Somewhat  earlier  in  the  session,  the  president  had 
caused  to  be  laid  before  Congress  Pickering's  dispatch, 
forwarded  to  Pinckney  at  Paris,  in  reply  to  Adet's  re- 
cent complaints.  To  this  was  added  a  large  collection 
of  supplementary  papers,  containing  the  greater  part  of 
the  correspondence  of  the  government  with  Fauchet  and 
Adet.  It  appeared  from  these  documents,  which  were 
ordered  to  be  printed,  that  Adet  had  seriously  urged, 
among  his  other  complaints,  that  the  Americans  had 
made  a  treaty  with  Algiers  without  waiting  for  French 
intervention  ;  that  the  French  flag  presented  to  Congress 
by  the  Directory  had  been  hidden  away  among  the  ar- 
chives, instead  of  being  suspended  in  the  hall  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  ;  and  that  the  American  gov 
ernment  allowed  to  be  published  certain  Almanacs  01 
Registers,  in  which  the  minister  from  Great  Britain  was 
placed  before  those  of  France  and  Spain,  which  lattei 
country  had  recently  become  the  ally  of  France. 

Feb.  27.  Toward  the  close  of  the  session,  a  report  from  the 
Secretary  of  State  made  a  full  exhibit  of  the  wrongs  in- 
flicted  by  the  Fre  nch  on  American  commerce.  Besides 


FRENOH    DEPREDATIONS  7QS 

particular  instances  of  hardship  and  suffering,  it  appeared  CIIAPTEB 

IX. 

that  Skipwith,  who  had  been  appointed  consul  general _ 

on  Monroe's  recommendation,  had  presented  to  the  French  1797, 
government  no  less  than  a  hundred  and  seventy  claims, 
many  of  them  for  provisions  furnished,  a  large  part  of 
which  had  been  examined  and  allowed  ;  also,  claims  for 
a  hundred  and  three  vessels  embargoed  at  Bordeaux,  and 
for  which  indemnity  had  been  promised,  though  in  nei- 
ther case  had  any  thing  been  paid.  To  these  were  to 
be  added  enormous  depredations  then  going  on  in  the 
West  Indies.  Victor  Hughes,  still  in  command  at  Gua- 
daloupe,  had  issued  three  decrees  of  his  own,  one  declar- 
ing all  vessels  with  contraband  articles  on  board  good 
prizes,  no  matter  whither  bound  ;  a  second  confiscating 
the  cargoes  of  all  neutral  vessels  bound  to  or  from  Brit- 
ish ports  ;  and  a  third  subjecting  to  like  seizure  all  ves- 
sels bound  to  any  Dutch  or  French  settlements  in  the 
possession  of  the  British,  or  cleared  out  for  the  West 
Indies  generally.  The  same  policy  had  been  adopted  by 
the  agents  of  the  Directory  on  the  coast  of  St.  Domingo. 
In  their  correspondence  with  their  own  governments, 
they  frankly  acknowledged  that,  having  no  other  resour- 
ces, their  administration,  during  the  last  three  months 
of  the  year  just  expired,  had  been  wholly  supported,  and 
private  individuals  enriched,  by  the  captures  made  by 
eighty-seven  privateers  employed  in  cruising  against 
American  commerce. 

Not  only  were  American  vessels  captured ;  their  crews 
vvere  often  treated  with  great  indignity,  and  even  cruel- 
ty. Bitter  complaints  were  made  of  Barney,  then  in  the 
West  Indies  with  his  two  frigates.  He  was  accused  of 
having  treated  with  scornful  indifference  and  neglect  his 
fellow-citizens  brought  in  as  prisoners  by  the  French 
privateers,  and  even  of  having  shown  his  contempt  for 


704  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED  STATED 


his  country  by  hoisting  the  American  ensign  union  down 
.  Yet,  when  he  arrived  in  the  Chesapeake  for  the  purpose 

1  797.  of  learning  and  carrying  to  France  the  result  of  the  pres- 
idential election,  though  he  boasted  of  having  in  his  pocket 
the  orders  of  the  French  Directory  to  capture  all  Ameri- 
can vessels,  and  declared  that  if  Jefferson  was  not  chosen 
president  war  would  be  declared  by  France  within  three 
months,  he  was  not  the  less,  on  that  account,  honored 
and  feasted  by  infatuated  politicians  who  read  the  Au- 
rora and  believed  Washington  to  be  a  traitor  ! 

News  had  been  received  of  Pinckney's  arrival  at  Bor- 
deaux, where  his  reception  had  been  cordial,  and  whence 
he  had  hastened  to  Paris  ;  but  the  Aurora,  which  seemed 
as  much  the  organ  of  the  French  Directory  as  of  the 
American  opposition,  already  foretold  that  he  would  not 
be  received. 

Such  was  the  doubtful  state  of  foreign  relations  wheu 
Washington  retired  from  the  administration.  Encour- 
aged by  the  accession  of  Spain  to  their  alliance,  and  by 
the  victories  of  Bonaparte  in  Italy,  the  French  Directo- 
ry grew  every  day  more  insolent.  What  was  still  more 
alarming,  they  seemed  to  be  countenanced  in  their  com- 
plaints and  demands  not  merely  by  the  Democratic  clubs 
and  the  more  violent  enthusiasts,  but  by  a  great  arid  for- 
midable party,  which  had  only  failed  by  two  votes  of  giv- 
ing a  president  to  the  Union. 


END  OF  YOL  I. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  SANTA  CRUZ 

This  book  is  due  on  the  lost  DATE  stamped  below. 


1999  W 


50m-6,'67(H2523s8)2373 


3  2 106  07459 


1074 


